Tag: cryptocurrencies

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Cryptocurrencies

GoChain (GO): Where Reputation Matters

Blockchain has so much potential to transform not just how we do business but society itself. Its qualities of decentralization, immutability, and distributedness make for transparent, trustless, and fraud-free interactions. 

Blockchain has so much potential to transform not just how we do business but society itself. Its qualities of decentralization, immutability, and distributedness make for transparent, trustless, and fraud-free interactions. 

Blockchain has so much potential to transform not just how we do business but society itself. Its qualities of decentralization, immutability, and distributedness make for transparent, trustless, and fraud-free interactions. 

And while this potential is huge, blockchain is currently hindered by issues like low scalability, lack of true decentralization, and excessive consumption of power. 

GoChain is a decentralized platform that wants to bring blockchain closer to businesses while solving the issues encumbering it. The platform is designed for its apps to be immediately integrable with Ethereum. 

Before we delve deeper into Gochain, let’s see why the current blockchain setup is problematic.

The Issues With Existing Blockchains

#1. Speed and Volume

Current blockchains suffer from slow transactions and low throughput. For instance, Bitcoin can process just 7 transactions per second, while Ethereum can process 15, at the time of writing. On top of that, it can take anything from minutes to hours to verify a transaction. This is a sharp contrast with Visa, which can process 1700 transactions per second. This demonstrates that the current blockchain setup is too slow for real-world and high volumes of transactions. 

#2. Power Consumption

As in proof of work (PoW consensus, the process of approving and verifying transactions gobbles up massive amounts of energy. The computational work that goes into the process is meant to protect the network against bad actors, but it comes at a cost. For instance, Bitcoin today uses the equivalent of the power that would run 3.5 million US households. This is just unsustainable in the long run.

#3. Questionable Decentralization

Decentralization is a central tenet of cryptocurrencies. Decentralization means any single company or government does not control a blockchain network. However, true decentralization remains a pipe dream. For example, the largest number of Bitcoin miners is situated in China, where electricity is cheap. In true decentralization, miners would be spread proportionately all over the world. 

#4. Rigid Contracts 

Ethereum supports smart contracts, which are contracts that are self-verifying and enforcing. Smart contracts operate so that all parties must commit to a set of rules before the contract is enforced. However, smart contracts are not that smart in some ways, especially when it comes to a fast-paced world. The parties to a smart contract cannot change the contract in any way, whether to upgrade the terms or fix a security bug. Smart contracts are also known to have been victims of attacks, meaning they’re not as safe as touted.

What’s GoChain?

GoChain is a decentralized, peer-to-peer network that uses Proof-of-Reputation consensus mechanism to power smart contracts and DApps. The network is 100% compatible with Ethereum wallets, and it had the mission of being “10x more decentralized, 100x faster and 1000x greener than Ethereum.” By greener, GoChain means utilizing a consensus model that does not consume as much power as PoW. 

Here are some of the main features of GoChain: 

  • GO-20 tokens, which are compatible with Ethereum
  • 1300 transactions per second with low to very minimal gas fees
  • A Proof of Reputation (PoR) consensus mechanism that relies on participants’ good reputation to secure the network
  • ‘Authorized Signers,’ who are 50 reputable companies picked from various industries and countries
  • Malicious nodes can be removed from the network

GoChain’s Fees and Rewards

Just like on Ethereum, GoChain users need to pay ‘gas’ to conduct transactions on the network. Authorized signers are in charge of creating, signing, and distributing blocks to nodes, for which they earn GO tokens in return. Reward tokens were 4.4% of the total supply, and they will decrease over time. 

The Voting Process 

GoChain will use a two-phase voting process. Initially, GoChain will have the first 50 signers enforcing decentralization and protecting the network against any outside interference. These signers will be picked from varying industries and jurisdictions. This is in line with the PoR consensus mechanism, in which a signer must already possess a reputation that’s too valuable to jeopardize/lose. When these signers are established, the network will hand complete control to them in a true self-governing version. 

GoChain will choose signers based on these credentials: 

  • Number of years in operation
  • Number of company employees
  • Annual revenue
  • Brand recognition
  • Company’s annual revenue

Proof of Reputation

GoChain uses a Proof of Reputation consensus mechanism to keep the network secure. A participant must already have a reputation that’s too prized to risk with any dishonest behavior. It’s why the PoR mechanism chooses larger companies – which have more to lose, over small companies. 

Once a company submits its reputation credentials, they may be voted in as an authoritative node, after which they can approve and verify blocks. GoChain is based on Ethereum’s network because the team believes that it’s “much more than just a store of value.” As well, Ethereum apps such as wallets and tools will be interoperable with GoChain. 

Why Reputation? 

GoChain relies on reputation because it’s one of the most crucial aspects of a business. For a company, acting unethically could bring consequences such as fines, a customers’ walkout, PR disaster, and so on. Trust is a key part of any business, and once that trust is lost, it can take years to repair. 

Hence, GoChain utilizes this model to keep companies in check and keep the network secure. PoR works for more risk-averse companies and wouldn’t be inclined to a PoW or Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus model. In PoR, everyone knows who the other is, and they know who they’re trusting with their data. 

GO Tokens 

GO is the native token of the GoChain ecosystem. The token’s distribution was done this way: 

  • Private and public sale: 51%
  • Team tokens: 10%
  • Advisor tokens: 6%
  • Token treasury: 10%
  • Marketing and legal expenses: 14%
  • GoChain fund: 10%

Key Metrics of GO Token 

Go token rounded up at these figures on October 14, 2020. Its price was $0.008448, with a market cap of $8,800,176, which placed it at #522. It had a 24-hour volume of $489,598 and a circulating supply of 1,041,653,540, and a total supply of 1,106,653,550. The token has an all-time high of $0.116462 (July 09, 2018) and an all-time low of $0.003994 (Mar 13, 2020). 

Where to Buy and Store GO

You can find GO listed on several popular exchanges, including Binance, VCC Exchange, KuCoin, Bilaxy, Bittrex, CoinDCX, DragonEx, Beaxy, and Coinall. BTC, USDT, and ETH are some of the currencies it’s listed against. 

For storage, options include ZenGo, CoolWalletS, Coinomi, Trezor Model T, and Ledger Nano S. 

Final Thoughts

GoChain is a solution for the persistent issues in blockchain, and its ready-to-go approach makes it an immediate DApp and smart contracts solution for users across the globe. GoChain promises a faster, more scalable, and more decentralized blockchain. The only caveat is, it’s not the first or the last project to offer that promise. Will it stand the test of time in the competitive crypto space? Only time will tell. 

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Crypto Daily Topic

What is Ripple, and Should You Buy It?

Introduced in 2012, Ripple aimed to facilitate seamless, fast, and cheap global money transfers. It is different from other cryptocurrencies in the way it works and what it aims to achieve. Bitcoin came as a digital currency and Ethereum as a smart contracts platform. But Ripple entered the scene as a payments infrastructure. Today, its digital currency is among the most popular – only surpassed by Bitcoin and Ethereum in market capitalization.

Introduced in 2012, Ripple aimed to facilitate seamless, fast, and cheap global money transfers. It is different from other cryptocurrencies in the way it works and what it aims to achieve. Bitcoin came as a digital currency and Ethereum as a smart contracts platform. But Ripple entered the scene as a payments infrastructure. Today, its digital currency is among the most popular – only surpassed by Bitcoin and Ethereum in market capitalization.

Introduced in 2012, Ripple aimed to facilitate seamless, fast, and cheap global money transfers. It is different from other cryptocurrencies in the way it works and what it aims to achieve. Bitcoin came as a digital currency and Ethereum as a smart contracts platform. But Ripple entered the scene as a payments infrastructure. Today, its digital currency is among the most popular – only surpassed by Bitcoin and Ethereum in market capitalization.

In this article, we take a deep dive into this fascinating cryptocurrency network. We will look at how Ripple works, its pros and cons, compare it with Bitcoin, and even look at how you can use it. Read on to find out more about Ripple.

Understanding Ripple

We’ve just said that Ripple is different because it is a payment infrastructure. But what exactly is a payments infrastructure? In the interest of simplicity, let’s say it is any platform that facilitates the transfer of funds between individuals. For Ripple, this transfer happens in real-time and on an individual order basis. In other words, this network is a real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system. 

The Ripple platform consists of the XCurrent messaging technology and the XRP currency. SWIFT is currently the most popular inter-bank funds transfer system. However, the recent adoption of the XCurrent messaging technology by some leading global banks has created uncertainty over SWIFT’s future. 

Ripple was created by Ripple Labs Inc. Unlike another crypto, which is usually generated through mining, Ripple Labs created the entire 100 billion XRP that circulates within the network. The company, strangely, holds 55 billion of these. 

While Ripple runs on open-source software, the network is not really decentralized – which the executives of Ripple Labs’ vehemently refute. The CTO is quoted saying that the XRP ledger existed even before Ripple Labs was founded, and that XRP will continue to circulate even if the company collapses. Cryptocurrencies are loved because they are decentralized. For Ripple, the company’s involvement in developing the network complicates the matter. Nevertheless, it remains the third most popular crypto going by total value of coins in circulation. 

Current Applications

Ripple’s utility extends beyond sending crypto from one person to another – the company’s recent partnership with Banco Santander demonstrated its potential in facilitating RTGS in mainstream banking. According to the Financial Times, this partnership allows the bank’s customers to send money across the globe in different currencies. That said, Ripple is mainly used for currency exchange and remittances. 

While the banking industry may be shy in adopting XRP because it’s volatile – like all other cryptos, it is likely to embrace Ripple’s payment infrastructure. Should that happen, Ripple will enable banks to make instant transfers and in different currencies while avoiding the high costs associated with SWIFT.

Ripple Versus Bitcoin

Ripple and Bitcoin are both blockchain-based technologies. This similarity should not make you think that Ripple is simply another cryptocurrency, just like Bitcoin. These two fundamentally differ in the following ways:

  • Mining: Bitcoin miners get rewarded with new coins. Ripple is not mined as all the coins were created when the network was built.
  • Underlying technology: Bitcoin transactions are verified using the proof-of-work concept (mining), while Ripple uses an iterative consensus.
  • Speed: Bitcoin takes an average of 10 minutes to commit transactions, while Ripple needs only 5 seconds. Ripple’s fast speed is what makes it suitable for RTGS.
  • Transaction cost: Bitcoin charges upwards of $2 per transaction, while Ripple costs about $0.004. The low transaction fees give Ripple an edge over SWIFT for remittances.
  • Supported currencies: The Bitcoin network supports only once currency while Ripple was built to support any currency.
  • Ownership: Bitcoin is decentralized, while Ripple is controlled by Ripple Labs Inc.

How to Use Ripple

Ripple can be used by both individuals and financial institutions. For individuals, it works like other cryptocurrencies – you can invest in it or use it to make payments. For banks, Ripple’s usefulness lies in its payment infrastructure technology. Let’s take a closer look at how the platform plays out in these two scenarios. 

For Individuals

As mentioned above, you can invest in Ripple (XRP) or use it for payments – just as you would with any other crypto. For this, you will need a digital wallet that supports XRP. There is a good review of XRP wallets on this page. Secondly, you need to identify a reliable exchange from where you can buy XRP; Bitstamp, Kraken, and GateHub are good options. Most of the exchanges offer XRP/USD, XRP/EUR, and XRP/BTC exchange pairs. Also, most of them will deposit the purchased XRP on your account on that website. Always ensure you move the funds to your private wallet soonest possible. 

For Banks/ Financial Institutions 

Ripple was developed with banks and other financial institutions in mind. The aim was to make cross-border fund transfers fast, cheap, and transparent, which banks have been unable to achieve for decades. 

Ever since, banks have been using SWIFT, an interbank telecommunication system, to send money across borders. SWIFT is expensive. Also, its transfers take about 1-4 business days to reflect. People seeking to make cross-border remittances have had to endure this reality for the last four decades. However, things are changing. Several major banks have seen the light and are now using Ripple’s messaging system to achieve the same function as SWIFT, but faster, more cheaply, and transparently. 

Just like SWIFT, Ripple’s payment infrastructure does not hold any funds – it is simply a messaging system. This means that banks do not have to overhaul the entire remittance process when adopting Ripple, and thus, the switch to Ripple should be swift (no pun intended).

Having cheap, instantaneous cross-border transfers is everyone’s wish, but until all banks adopt Ripple’s platform, such transfers will have to stay on the wishlist. 

Ripple’s Pros 

  • Fast transactions – Transactions on Ripple are among the fastest among cryptocurrency networks. Within 3-5 seconds, the transfer of funds from person A to person B can be complete.
  • Supported by a reliable technical team – Ripple is supported by a team of world-class engineers because the company can afford them.
  • Reliability – The platform has been tested by some of the world’s largest banks, meaning it is a reliable solution.
  • Low cost – Transaction fees on Ripple are very competitive.

Ripple’s Cons

  • Centralized – Ripple Labs owns 55% of the total coins in the network, which makes it too powerful. Decentralized governance is one of the characteristics that have made cryptocurrencies attractive. 
  • Focus on banks/ financial institutions – Ripple was largely designed to benefit banks and financial institutions. Individuals might be unable to leverage the platform’s full range of capabilities. 

Closing Remarks

Ripple is an original, fresh, and unique solution to the age-old problem of cross-border money transfers and, as a digital currency, an alternative to Bitcoin. We have seen that the crypto network is primarily focused on financial institutions. However, you can still use XRP to make payments or invest in it. So, if you are a crypto enthusiast, XRP is a good alternative to other altcoins. 

For financial institutions, Ripple introduces speed, low-costs, and transparency in international money transfers. Many of the world’s largest banks have already tested its payment infrastructure – giving it the seal of approval that other financial institutions can rely on. Ripple promises faster and cheaper money transfers. However, we might have to wait for long as banks consider its adoption. Until then, we will have to endure the slow and costly SWIFT transfers.

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Cryptocurrencies

Introducing Electra (ECA)

Before blockchain, people had to contend with slow and expensive cross-border transactions, and merchants had to give up high percentages of their revenue in the payment process. Well, it’s still pretty much that way, but it doesn’t have to be any longer. The revolutionary features of blockchain, such as decentralization, high-level security, and transparency, should change the game. 

Before blockchain, people had to contend with slow and expensive cross-border transactions, and merchants had to give up high percentages of their revenue in the payment process. Well, it’s still pretty much that way, but it doesn’t have to be any longer. The revolutionary features of blockchain, such as decentralization, high-level security, and transparency, should change the game. 

Before blockchain, people had to contend with slow and expensive cross-border transactions, and merchants had to give up high percentages of their revenue in the payment process. Well, it’s still pretty much that way, but it doesn’t have to be any longer. The revolutionary features of blockchain, such as decentralization, high-level security, and transparency, should change the game. 

Electra (ECA) is a blockchain effort that seeks to revolutionize how the world views payments. Founded in 2017, Electra is a financial management system that will allow merchants everywhere to use an alternative payment method free from intermediaries or centralized control. The protocol will offer users what traditional systems have failed to do for ages: friendly fees, instant transactions, immediate access to funds, state-of-the-art security, and more. 

The Electra protocol is embedded with the Lightning Network, atomic swaps, and PoS 3.0e. In the future, it intends to integrate SegWit as well as smart contract functionalities. 

Understanding Electra

Electra (ECA) is an open-source crypto and blockchain project for facilitating peer-to-peer payments across the globe. The project wants to provide a secure, cost-effective, and more flexible alternative to the traditional payment model where merchants pay up to a 3% processing fee. 

Using Electra, merchants can pay for transactions at the negligible rate of 0.0001 ECA. This is compared with the flat merchant discount rate (MDR) rate that gives businesses, especially small businesses, the shorter end of the stick. And, they usually have to wait for days to receive payments. 

Electra seeks to facilitate micropayments. To achieve this, the Electra blockchain can process up to 800 transactions per second (TPS) with a confirmation time of 64 seconds. This allows merchants to receive payments in milliseconds. Just like on Bitcoin, merchants can ultimately decide their transactions’ finality based on how many blocks have passed. Electra also removes the need for intermediaries between merchants and customers, providing for a leaner and more cost-effective process. No intermediaries mean more secure transactions as well, since the possibility of fraud is vastly reduced. 

Electra: Existing Products

Over the years, Electra has rolled out various products to realize its mission of more affordable and secure payments. Let’s look at each one by one. 

#1. ElectraPay

This is a tool that allows merchants from anywhere in the world to register and accept e-commerce payments. When they sign up, they generate an API key – a unique identifier that authenticates payment and billing requests. Currently, Electra supports the WooCommerce plugin. The WooCommerce plugin can be used on WordPress sites. 

With the plugin, a merchant can track the status of every order via the portal. They can also track their account information and update it if necessary. Finally, they can see all changes made in the order records and by whom. Transactions via the Electra network can be seen by both the merchant and the customer in near real-time. 

#2. Point-of-Sale System

Electra also supports a Point-of-Sale solution that’s directly linked to the ElectraPay merchant account. This integration allows the merchant to plug in on both the online and physical environments. 

User Benefits

The Electra protocol provides multiple benefits for users – whether active users or just fans of the project: 

  • Ability to join the community and contribute to the monetary value and market standing of the project and coin
  • Seamless installation of ElectraPay complete with a plugin for both online and offline environments
  • Enjoy safe and secure payments based on the NIST5 algorithm.
  • Negligible transaction fees of 0.00001% – way lower than debit or credit card options
  • Near real-time transactions with a 64 seconds confirmation time
  • Worldwide ATMs for easy integration with the Electra debit card
  • Zero exchange fees
  • Rewards upon staking Electra coin

Key Metrics of Electra Coin (ECA)

ECA is the native cryptocurrency of Electra. It plays a pivotal role in the ecosystem, from facilitating payments to staking. Let’s see the coin’s current market standing: 

As of October 16, ECA traded at $0.000173, with a market cap of $4,954,908 that placed it at #713. The coin had a 24-hour volume of $383.80, a circulating and total supply of 28,712,458,937, and 29,579,615,490, respectively. The coin’s all-time high was $0.010651 (Jan 04, 2018), while its all-time low was $0.000001 (Dec 01, 2017). 

Where to Buy and Store ECA

ECA is listed on several legit exchanges, including CoinFalcon, Crex24, HitBTC, Coindeal, STEX, Fatbtc, Altilly, and Coinbene. 

The Electra team provides several official wallets, including a Windows Wallet (32 and 64 bit), MacOs wallet, Linux/RPi wallet, and wallets for Android and iOS. The team also recommends these third-party wallets: Magnum, My Staking Wallet, Ellipal and Secux. 

Closing Thoughts

Electra is one of several blockchain projects that are making things easier for merchants all over the world. With near real-time settlements, fast speeds, and incredibly cheap transactions, it helps bring blockchain benefits to real-life use. Hopefully, projects like these can push blockchain to wider use and acceptance.

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Cryptocurrencies

What’s Alpha Finance Lab (ALPHA)?

DeFi is the hottest topic in the crypto and blockchain space now, and the reason it’s so popular is the countless benefits it affords users. Financial instruments have been a preserve of the top few elites for too long, and DeFi is set to change that. As of now, we have multiple DeFi projects aiming for the top spot in terms of offerings, user experience, and more. 

DeFi is the hottest topic in the crypto and blockchain space now, and the reason it’s so popular is the countless benefits it affords users. Financial instruments have been a preserve of the top few elites for too long, and DeFi is set to change that. As of now, we have multiple DeFi projects aiming for the top spot in terms of offerings, user experience, and more. 

DeFi is the hottest topic in the crypto and blockchain space now, and the reason it’s so popular is the countless benefits it affords users. Financial instruments have been a preserve of the top few elites for too long, and DeFi is set to change that. As of now, we have multiple DeFi projects aiming for the top spot in terms of offerings, user experience, and more. 

Less than a year old, Alpha Finance Lab is one of many DeFi contenders emerging. The Alpha tram wants to empower people to “reclaim control over their digital presence.” So what does it offer potential users? We answer that question in this article. 

Breaking Down Alpha Finance Lab 

Alpha Finance Lab is a DeFi ecosystem that will integrate various products and bring users the experience of different blockchains, starting with Binance Smart Chain and Ethereum. The Alpha team wants to “drive cross-chain DeFi and cross-chain liquidity through building interoperability among Alpha products and integrating with leading ecosystem partners to drive the next stage of DeFi.” 

The Alpha team wants to achieve the following: 

  • Sustainable yield generation upon users’ depositing of supported assets
  • Eliminate or reduce the risk if impermanent loss (IL)
  • Facilitate privacy-oriented asset exchange
  • Support lending with already-provisioned interest rates 

Alpha: Existing Products 

The Alpha platform is building a mix of products that will be interoperable across Binance Chain and Ethereum and will support more blockchain platforms in the future. With that, let’s look at the platform’s current offerings: 

#1. Lending

Alpha supports lending through its Alpha Lending protocol. On the protocol, users can earn interest by depositing supported assets. Deposited assets will be transferred into a smart contract that will allow users to borrow money for trading. When borrowers pay back interest, it will be pooled and proportionately awarded to liquidity providers depending on their contribution. 

If you want to be a lender, they can deposit any of the supported tokens, e.g., Ethereum, into the protocol. After this, you’ll receive aITokens (such as aIETH), which are interest-generating tokens that will represent your share of the deposited ETH. 

#2. Borrowing

If you wish to borrow from the Alpha protocol, you first have to deposit supported assets as collateral. After that, you’ll receive aITokens. Assets eligible for collateralization have been assigned a Loan-to-Value (LTV) ratio. Let’s say the LTV for ETH is 70%. If you deposit ETH as collateral, you can borrow any asset in the pool and up to 70% of the value of the ETH you deposited. 

#3. Interest rate 

The interest rate will be determined by the asset’s utilization rate; in other words, the amount of deposited assets that have been borrowed. The bigger the utilization rate, the higher the interest rate. 

#4. Risk and Liquidation

Risk of liquidation is when the total value of the assets you borrow exceeds the maximum value you can take. Due to the volatility of cryptocurrencies, it’s recommended that you borrow at a lower value than the maximum value you can borrow. This will cushion you against the risk of liquidation. 

#5. Alpha Homora 

This is a protocol that allows users to leverage their position in liquidity mining pools. As a user, you can participate in the protocol as a yield farmer, lender, or liquidator. You can also participate by finding bugs in the protocol for which you’ll earn rewards. 

ALPHA Token 

ALPHA is the native cryptocurrency of the Alpha protocol, and it has the following current and planned roles: 

  • Liquidity mining: Users can earn ALPHA tokens for providing liquidity to the platform
  • Staking: Token holders can stake ALPHA tokens and get a share of the platform’s revenue
  • Governance: ALPHA token holders can participate in the governance of the platform by voting on project proposals

The Alpha token was distributed in the following manner: 

  • Binance launchpad sale tokens: 10%
  • Binance launchpool tokens: 5%
  • Private sale tokens: 13.33%
  • Liquidity mining tokens: 20%
  • Team and advisors’ tokens: 15%
  • Ecosystem tokens: 36.67%

Community Strategies of Alpha Finance Lab

The Alpha team intends to conduct several strategies to expand the growth of the project. 

These strategies include: 

  • Hosting and co-hosting DeFi conferences and related events to engage with potential users
  • Publishing blog posts every two weeks to update the community on technical updates
  • Engaging with the community via social media channels 

Future strategies include: 

  • Launching the Alpha Finance Lab Program to promote partnerships with similar projects
  • Launching yield farming programs 
  • Launching joint yield farming programs with other industry players

Key Metrics

The ALPHA token was trading at $0.034681 on October 16, 2020. It had a 24-hour volume of $2,489,546, an all-time high of $0.106884 (October 10, 2020), and an all-time low of $0.033573 (October 16, 2020) per Coinmarketcap. 

Where to Buy Alpha Tokens 

ALPHA has been listed on Coinone, Binance, and VCC Exchange. 

Closing Thoughts 

The Alpha team wants to push DeFi to the next level by focusing on cross-chain interoperability. Like many other DeFi protocols, Alpha provides an opportunity for people everywhere to make money by simply staking in crypto. The project is still young, so let’s see its future innovations. 

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Crypto Guides

Secure Trades using Safex- A Decentralised, Open-Source Crypto Marketplace

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

If you are frequently updated with the blockchain trend, then you must have come across Safex. Unlike most blockchain technologies used for security and transactional purposes, Safex is focused on e-commerce. Even since Bitcoin emerged as a P2P electronic cash system (peer-to-peer), the idea of a decentralized system on which people could easily trade with each other without requiring a centralized governing body has been at the forefront of every technological leap in the blockchain industry.

Living up to crypto enthusiasts and professionals’ expectations of wanting a truly borderless and open P2P trading system that helps both sellers and buyers. Safex is a community and a decentralized protocol built and designed on the original concepts of the individual rights to control, security, and privacy over transactions.

Let’s understand why Safex is the real attraction for crypto investors all across the globe.

What is Safex?

Safex is a privacy-based, decentralized, and open-source e-commerce marketplace designed to help both sellers and buyers and make transactions hassle-free. It allows you to create powerful web stores that are powered by blockchain. Safex has been using the heavily modified blockchain technology called cryptonote that leads to a world-class marketplace. What’s interesting about Safex is that the platform boasts a unique type of commerce-focused smart contract function.

Since data breach is the major vulnerability suffered by most centralized commerce platforms, Safex primarily focuses on privacy, addressing issues like opaque and unfair system for visibility of listings and trades, snooping on online behavior, unwarranted collection of personal data, and arbitrarily large and non-transparent commissions.

Industry experts claim that Safex has revolutionized the e-commerce sector by streamlining the processes and providing the e-commerce ecosystem with sheer privacy, which was previously not there.

More than 10,000 individuals have already invested in Safex Token and Cash after recognizing the project’s potential.

Why Safex?

Credit card fraud, privacy issues, and unfairness to small to medium-scale sellers are a few of the many problems affecting everyday users. With Safex, users get a solution in the form of secure online payment, an embedded privacy coin for free, and a marketplace on a blockchain. Safex combines Shopify, Upwork, and Amazon’s functionalities into a single platform, creating a new future for online shopping that eliminates the difficulties and challenges that users have to deal with every day.

Safex Features and Functionalities

With Safex, small sellers from across the world will have access to a global client base.

Engine for E-Commerce – Safex offers a decentralized database and an integrated global payment engine, which adds security and a privacy layer to online stores.

Safex Marketplace – Safex is a decentralized marketplace on a privacy blockchain, allowing sellers to gain exposure to the wide network of Safex users.

Privacy Blockchain -Safex uses functionalities like One-Time Address and Ring Signatures to maintain the senders’ anonymity and recipients of transactions.

Conclusion

Safex has already developed a strong community of users who believe in the project. Since blockchain is the future of online payment, Safex can prove to be a game-changer in how people carry out online transactions.

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Crypto Daily Topic Cryptocurrencies

What’s PIVX All About?

Bitcoin has inspired thousands of cryptocurrencies. At the moment, there are 7,434 cryptocurrencies, according to Coinmarketcap. Each cryptocurrency comes with aspirations of being better than the last one in one way or another. Others want to solve the issues inherent with Bitcoin, such as lack of complete privacy, scalability issues, etc. 

Bitcoin has inspired thousands of cryptocurrencies. At the moment, there are 7,434 cryptocurrencies, according to Coinmarketcap. Each cryptocurrency comes with aspirations of being better than the last one in one way or another. Others want to solve the issues inherent with Bitcoin, such as lack of complete privacy, scalability issues, etc. 

Bitcoin has inspired thousands of cryptocurrencies. At the moment, there are 7,434 cryptocurrencies, according to Coinmarketcap. Each cryptocurrency comes with aspirations of being better than the last one in one way or another. Others want to solve the issues inherent with Bitcoin, such as lack of complete privacy, scalability issues, etc. 

PIVX is one of such cryptocurrencies. Launched in 2016, PIVX was the first to use a two-tier staking reward model and both cold and hot staking. 

This article explores the PIVX protocol and what innovations it brings to the space. We’ll also see its native token and how it fits in the puzzle.

Understanding PIVX

PIVX, Private Instant Verified Transaction (Tx), is a decentralized, Proof-of-stake (PoS) cryptocurrency dedicated to privacy, fungibility, community governance, and real-world utilization. PIVX wants to achieve this with the power of several key characteristics: 

#1. Dash/Bitcoin core source-code: The PIVX protocol is forked off of the source code for Dash, which in itself forked off Bitcoin’s source code. Dash’s code is fortified with a tailored PoS algorithm and an enhanced privacy protocol.

#2. Customized PoS algorithm: PIVX’s improved PoS is intended to achieve true decentralization while using as little energy as possible. This PoS also implements a community governance system to be “the ultimate people’s fungible cryptocurrency.” After transitioning from Proof of Work (PoW), PIVX has solely relied on PoS to generate new blocks. Block generation is done by holders of the PIVX token

#3. Masternode network: PIVX features a second-tier network of masternodes through which users can set up specialized full-node wallets if they stake in at least 10,000 of PIVX tokens. The masternodes are entitled to network governance, a role for which they are rewarded with more PIVX. All payouts are done in a completely decentralized manner.

How Does PIVX Differ From Other Blockchain Networks? 

PIVX distinguishes itself from other blockchain networks with the following characteristics: 

#1. Private and Public Staking:

PIVX utilizes a customized Proof of Stake model in which users can stake in PIVX using both hot and cold wallets. Through this, users can mint new tokens and get rewards. Masternodes are also rewarded for every new block that’s minted.

#2. Cold Staking: 

This feature allows users to store coins in one wallet, with the possibility of delegating those coins for staking by another node. This means a staker can have their wallets online and still stake without necessarily having spending access to the coins. Cold staking ensures security for coins and ensures the user can still stake and get rewards even if their coins are stored offline.

#3. Sapling

This is a faster and more efficient replacement for the Zerocoin protocol. 

#4. PIVX Foundation:

PIVX features its own legal footprint, which supports the project legally and financially. The foundation stepped in in 2019 as a subset of the Sustainable Development Goals Impact Fund (SDG) – a Public Charity Donor Advised Fund (DAF). This DAF is the only one in the US that’s not controlled by a bank, uses cryptocurrency, and is focused on helping advance the United Nations’ SDGs. 

How to Stake PIVX

There are two ways to stake PIVX (PIV). One is hot staking, which involves installing PIVX’s core desktop wallet and unlocking it in Staking Only mode. When you deposit coins, they’ll start when they gain 600 confirmations. Hot staking requires that the wallet be online for the process to take place. 

The other method is cold staking, which can be done by installing the core desktop wallet, depositing crypto, and delegating the staking of those coins via the Cold Staking tab to an offline staking address. That address could either be your own wallet or one belonging to a third-party cold staking service provider.

Specs of the PIVX Token 

  • Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm (both hot and cold staking)
  • Block size of 2 MB
  • Block time of 60 seconds (which re-targets after every block)
  • 173 transactions per second (TPS)
  • Stake-able, with rewards for ownership
  • Masternode support upon staking 10,000 PIV

Key Metrics 

As of October 16, the PIVX token traded at $0.368337, ata market cap of $20, 914, 580, placing it at #337. PIVX has a 24-hour volume of $705, 146, and a circulating and total supply of 56, 781,166. The token’s all-time high was $9.20 (Jan 23, 2018), while its all-time low was $0.000422 (Feb 16, 2016), per Coinmarketcap.

Where to Buy and Store PIV

Today, you can find PIV listed on a variety of exchanges as a market pair of BTC, KRW, ETH, EUR and USDT. Some of the exchanges include Binance, Finexbox, VCC Exchange, Bithumb, Bittrex, KuCoin, Graviex, YoBit, LiteBite.eu, Birake Network, HotBit, Txbit, and VALR. 

You can hold PIV tokens in the PIVX core wallet (Desktop), PIVX Light wallet (desktop), Ledger Nano S (hardware), PIVX Mobile, Coinomi (Mobile/Desktop), and Satowallet (Desktop/Mobile/Web). 

Final Thoughts

PIVX manages to provide something novel for the crypto space, whether its pioneering the Zerocoin protocol or supporting both cold and hot staking. However, its place in the market is not exactly enviable at this point, and if it means to stay relevant, it will need to up its game or risk being relegated to oblivion. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Secalot wallet Review: Is It The Safest Hardware Wallet Yet?

Secalot is an all-in-one, security-focused crypto hardware wallet developed and launched into the Crypto market in 2017. It takes the form of a USB dongle that packs a wide range of operational, security, and privacy features. Unlike most USB-like hardware wallets characterized by an OLED on-device screen, Secalot uses a remote screen. It nevertheless has two buttons for authentication of crypto transactions.

Secalot hardware crypto wallet

Secalot is an all-in-one, security-focused crypto hardware wallet developed and launched into the Crypto market in 2017. It takes the form of a USB dongle that packs a wide range of operational, security, and privacy features. Unlike most USB-like hardware wallets characterized by an OLED on-device screen, Secalot uses a remote screen. It nevertheless has two buttons for authentication of crypto transactions.

Secalot is an all-in-one, security-focused crypto hardware wallet developed and launched into the Crypto market in 2017. It takes the form of a USB dongle that packs a wide range of operational, security, and privacy features. Unlike most USB-like hardware wallets characterized by an OLED on-device screen, Secalot uses a remote screen. It nevertheless has two buttons for authentication of crypto transactions.

Most of Secalot hardware wallet features are spread between the USB dongle and its software/mobile app companions. We will detail them all in this Secalot hardware wallet review, outline the step-by-step guide on how to activate the crypto vault, vet its ease of use, and list its pros and cons.

Secalot wallet key features

Remote screen: Given that the Sacelot hardware device doesn’t have an on-screen device, it relies heavily on a remote screen hosted on the Sacelot mobile app. This lets you view and manage your digital assets, though the private keys never leave the hardware device.

OpenPGP smart card: Secalot’s unique design equips you with the capability to perform cryptographic actions using the OpenPGP smart card. These include file encryption and signing, logging into computers under Linux, signing and encrypting email,  as well as encrypting hard disks using TrueCrypt.

On-device buttons: The USB, like Secalot hardware wallet dongle, features two on-device buttons that are used to not only navigate the wallet but also authorize outbound crypto transfers.

Compatible with MyEtherWallet: Though the Secalot wallet is a multi-currency wallet, it is biased towards the Ethereum blockchain network, as evidenced by the fact that it is compatible with MyEtherWallet.

Portfolio tracker: The Secalot wallet app also features balance and transaction history tabs that let you monitor your digital assets portfolio in real-time.

Secalot wallet security features

PIN-protected: Secalot hardware wallet is secured and encrypted with a PIN code.

Recovery seed: When activating the wallet and creating a user account, you will be presented with a 24-word recovery seed to restore lost wallets and recover private keys.

U2F + OTP: The hardware wallet hosts the Universal Second Factor (U2F) feature that can be used to generate the one-time-passcode (OTP) for signing into sensitive websites like Google, GitHub, Facebook, NextCloud, and numerous other websites. This features compliments (and can be used alongside) Google’s Authenticator app.

Hierarchically deterministic: Secalot is a hierarchically deterministic hardware wallet that auto-generates a new wallet address for each transaction. This privacy feature helps throw crypto trackers off.

Open source: The Secalot hardware wallet, software, and app are all open-sourced. You can download to view, audit, or suggest improvement on this source code from the official Secalot wallet website or their GitHub page.

Non-Custodial + Cold storage: Secalot is a non-custodial wallet that stores your private keys and other personal data in the cold offline storage – the USB like dongle device. You have absolute control over these private keys.

Encrypted communication: All Secalot hardware wallet communications with third-party systems and Secalot wallet app/software are highly encrypted. They communicate via the ultra-safe SSL/TLS channel that eliminates the possibility of a man-in-the-middle hack.

How to set and activate the Secalot wallet (Bitcoin or Ethereum wallet)

How to activate a Secalot Bitcoin wallet

Step 1: Start by downloading the modified version of the Electrum wallet on Secalot’s official website.

Step 2: Install and launch the Electrum Wallet.

Step 3: On the initializing page, click on “Create New Wallet” and create a unique user name for your crypto wallet.

Step 4: Chose the type of wallet you want to create (between a standard wallet and a Multi-signature wallet)

Step 5: Connect the Secalot hardware device and copy the 24-word recovery seed generated.

Step 6: Create a PIN Code for your hardware wallet device

Step 7: The wallet is now active and ready to use

How to activate a Secalot Ethereum wallet

Step 1: After purchasing the Secalot hardware device, open their official website and download the modified MyEtherWallet

Step 2: Follow the installation prompts as dictated by the “Secalot Control Panel GUI.”

Step 3: Connect the hardware wallet device.

Step 4: Copy the 24-word recovery seed generated.

Step 5: Create a PIN code for the hardware wallet

Step 6: The Secalot Ethereum wallet is now active and ready to use

How to add/receive crypto into your Secalot wallet

Step 1: Log in to the modified Secalot account you want to use, Electrum for Bitcoin or MyEtherWallet for Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens

Step 2:  On the user dashboard, click on the receive button

Step 3:  Copy the wallet address or the QR code displayed by the deposit window and forward it to the party sending you coins.

Step 4: Wait for the coin to reflect on your account.

How to send crypto from your Secalot wallet

Step 1: Log in to the modified Secalot account you want to use, Electrum for Bitcoin or MyEtherWallet for Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens

Step 2: Click the “Send” icon on the user dashboard.

Step 3: Enter the wallet address for the recipient and the number of coins you want to send

Step 4: Confirm the transaction and hit send.

Step 5: Connect the Secalot hardware dongle into the computer and log in by keying in the PIN code.

Step 6: Authorize the transaction

Secalot wallet ease of use

Though Secalot hardware wallet stacks a ton of features and advanced security protocols, it isn’t user-friendly, especially to crypto beginners. We consider its onboarding process quite complicated, especially since it requires you to download, setup, and maintain two different online wallets to store two cryptocurrencies and a handful of Eth-tokens.

Further, the multilingual hardware wallet fails to integrate such basic features as a crypto exchange or swap platform.

Secalot wallet supported currencies.

Secalot hardware will only support Bitcoins, Ethereum, and ERC-20 token. Note that the two popular cryptos are also hosted on different Secalot wallets.

Secalot wallet cost and fees

You can order a Secalot hardware wallet from its official website. It currently retails at €50.

When sending Bitcoins or Ethereum and the ERC-20 tokens to another wallet or exchange, you will have to part with a variable transaction fee collected by blockchain miners and administrators.

Secalot wallet customer support

There are two primary ways of accessing the Secalot hardware wallet’s customer support team. You can choose to send them an email or direct message them on Facebook and Twitter.

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

Pros:

  • Secalot is highly secure as it embraces advanced security features.
  • Advanced features.
  • It is competitively priced.
  • The hardware wallet is highly transparent in that its source code is fully open-sourced.
  • Secalot is highly versatile and available as a hardware dongle and software wallet app.

Cons:

  • Secalot hardware wallet relies on third-party wallets like electrum and MyrEtherWallet.
  • It supports a limited number of coins.
  • The hardware wallet packaging doesn’t include a user manual/installation guide.

Comparing Secalot wallet with other hardware wallets

Secalot wallet vs. Trezor hardware wallet

Secalot and Trezor hardware wallets share more than a commitment to the safety and privacy, and integrity of their client funds. They both are also characterized by ultra-light hardware dongles and highly intuitive user interfaces. Moreover, they have embraced several high advanced operational and security protocols like the recovery seed, two-factor authentication, and maintaining offline cold storage for client private keys.

But while the Trezor Wallet has a relatively easy and straightforward setup process, Secalot Wallet’s activation process is rather complex. Furthermore, Trexor Wallet supports a broader range of cryptocurrencies and tokens (1000+), while Secalot will only support two digital currencies.

Verdict: Is Secalot Wallet safe?

Yes, Secalot is a considerably safe hardware wallet. Not just because your private keys and all other data stored never leaves their offline storage but also because of the numerous and highly advanced security and privacy measures the wallet developers have put in place. For instance, they ensured that the wallet is hierarchically deterministic and provided the option of setting up a multi-signature wallet. It serves as a U2F authenticator, and both its firmware and software are fully open-sourced.

Categories
Crypto Videos

New Wave Of Crypto Banks Will Destroy Fiat Banks in 3 years!

https://youtu.be/YIhyb6yRInI

https://youtu.be/YIhyb6yRInI

“Crypto Banks Will Eat Fiat Banks in 3 years — or even less” – Opinions of a CEO


Mark Binns, the CEO of BIGG Digital Assets Inc., believes that the future of crypto will be a bit different than what most people think. He believes that the crypto sector will become a safe, compliant, and regulated environment. He voiced his opinions in an article published by Cointelegraph, where he spoke of the future of crypto he imagines.
Binns said that a future where customers are going to be able to walk into any bank and gain access to credit products, investments, and savings accounts that can host both crypto-assets and fiat assets.

Kraken, a San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange giant, has become the first-ever cryptocurrency business in the US to become a bank. At the moment, being an officially chartered bank would mean that Kraken will be able to offer even more banking and funding options to existing customers than it is offering now. It also means Kraken Financial will be able to operate in multiple jurisdictions without any fear of having to deal with state-by-state compliance.

Kraken is currently working with Silvergate Bank in hopes of offering its US customers SWIFT and FedWire funding options. More and more partnerships such as this one will become the status quo in the future. Binns is calling out traditional banks, saying that now is the time for the ones lagging behind to start paying attention to the market development.


Silvergate Bank is one step ahead of the rest at the moment, as it is currently having almost 900 digital asset companies as clients. Those clients have made deposits of over $1.5 billion with the bank. While this is still a small amount of money in relative terms, clients dipping their toes in the crypto sector will almost certainly choose this bank. Consumers will most likely define a “full service” bank as one that offers financial services in fiat as well as crypto.

Blockchain forensics tools

 

Just like crime scene investigators can use a black light or fingerprint powder to detect all kinds of evidence, blockchain forensics investigators can do similarly to Bitcoin and other blockchains. People claiming that Bitcoin is completely private has been dispelled again and again. In fact, blockchain-based cryptocurrencies are much more open to investigative methods than regular fiat currencies. Binns said that, as it is certainly possible to uncover blockchain transactions’ origins, blockchain will become a part of the traditional banking system rather than “putting banks out of business.”

Blockchain forensics tools already exist. They allow investigators to follow digital paper trails across multiple addresses, wallets, transactions, blockchains, and other digital entities, all by using clustering and heuristics techniques. Companies in the blockchain forensics space are developing proprietary searching algorithms designed specifically to detect concealed funds’ origins. On the other hand, traditional fiat is still the currency of choice for most money laundering professionals, simply because it is very hard to track.

DeFi is not for everyone


The decentralized finance sector has been the hot topic of the crypto sector for a while now, as it holds virtually endless promise. While yield farming may be all the rage, the DeFi sector is so much more than just that.
Some examples of DeFi usage are:
 Allowing you to take technical and fundamental trading advice from experienced traders and only pay a fee if the call is correct.
 You can put your capital into various digital investment portfolios without having to pay fees to mutual funds.
 Investors can hold derivatives of their desired cryptocurrencies without having to switch between blockchains.
These innovations are just some of the opportunities that DeFi provides. As the market continues to mature, more DeFi projects will allow us to do things that we aren’t even thinking about right now.

However, there is one fundamental problem with all the benefits decentralized finance provides: the average banking customer isn’t going to engage with DeFi protocols for decades. While the most avid crypto enthusiast knows how to dig up the contract address of an ERC-20 token, then trade it on decentralized exchanges, and then invest that token through lending platforms or liquidity pools, the average person will still likely want to talk to a banker from time to time. On top of that, governments around the world are already working on their own government-backed digital currencies, which the average consumer will go for instead of DeFi, at least at first, and simply due to the trust people have in the government.

What if banks don’t comply?

Binns said that any bank that is still approaching cryptocurrency with fear over the next 18 months is at great risk of finding itself dead in the water, while Kraken and other banks that enter the market will create a huge advantage for themselves.

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Cryptocurrencies

Everything You Need to Know About RCHAIN (REV)

We always hear how blockchain is poised to change the world. But in reality, the technology hasn’t really penetrated the real world in any significant way. The reason for this is flaws within the original blockchain setup, such as low scalability.

We always hear how blockchain is poised to change the world. But in reality, the technology hasn’t really penetrated the real world in any significant way. The reason for this is flaws within the original blockchain setup, such as low scalability.

We always hear how blockchain is poised to change the world. But in reality, the technology hasn’t really penetrated the real world in any significant way. The reason for this is flaws within the original blockchain setup, such as low scalability.

RCHAIN is a project that wants to bring blockchain to real-life utilization. The RCHAIN team has big dreams, such as solving the unprecedented problems of our time. But how does it intend to do this? We’ll examine that in this article. 

Understanding RCHAIN

Launched in 2016, RCHAIN is a blockchain-based effort that wants to solve the problems of lack of scalability, low speeds, and safety in the current blockchain. The RCHAIN team believes that these and other shortcomings hinder the mainstream success of blockchain and that the blockchain concept needs to be rethought.

For that end, the RCHAIN team has imagined a better design for blockchain: 

#1. Speed 

RCHAIN can support the processing of up to tens of thousands of transactions per second (TPS). The initial goal was 40,000 transactions, and the ultimate goal is 100,000 TPS. 

#2. Developer Tools

The RCHAN team will avail developer tools unparalleled by any current offerings in the space. Developers of all backgrounds and coding languages will easily acclimatize to the platform.

#3. RCHAIN Cooperative

RCHAIN Cooperative is a public entity comprising RCHAIN developers, investors, and users. Through the outfit, members can access and interact with the open-source blockchain. The RCHAIN Cooperative offers a climate of community, giving members the ability to contribute to the platform’s future.

#4. Trust

RCHAIN will empower developers from everywhere to create more secure, scalable, fast, and fraud-proof decentralized solutions.

RCHAIN: Goals

Aided by these functionalities, the RCHAIN team wants to achieve the following goals: 

  • Provide solutions for the most challenging global solutions and crises
  • Achieve unprecedented scalability and speed to solve the biggest issues of our time
  • Unlock blockchain solutions to empower people to work in a holistic fashion
  • Connect with thriving communities to unlock solutions for complex global challenges

How RCHAIN Works 

The RCHAIN network was built with scalability in mind. It can support multiple blockchains at once, secured through a Proof of Stake consensus mechanism. RCHAIN provides support for both public and private blockchains. With that, let’s see some of the core features of the platform: 

#1. Rho Virtual Machine Environment

RCHAIN features the Rho Virtual Machine Execution Environment, which lends speed and scalability to the platform’s applications. The Execution Environment can run several Rho Virtual Machines simultaneously. The Rho Virtual Machines are also capable of creating replicas of themselves to handle extra loads. 

RCHAIN has a multi-chain architecture that enables its blockchain to operate in a coordinated and parallel manner. Each virtual machine can also execute an independent set of smart contracts on a yet independent set of blockchain networks. 

#2. Smart Contracts

The RCHAIN platform uses its proprietary smart contract language – Rholang, which is short for reflective higher-order language. Rholang supports internal concurrent programming and allows contracts to be fast and versatile. 

RCHAIN’s smart contracts have to go through a verification process to make them highly scalable before being compiled and executed by the Rho Virtual Machine.

#3. Namespaces

RCHAIN is different from other blockchains that use public keys to distinguish virtual identities. RCHAIN achieves this by dividing its virtual address space into namespaces. In very general terms, a namespace is a set of named channels that can report a particular network resource location.

Namespaces enable smart contracts on one blockchain to be visible by system contracts on other network parts. Namespaces also allow developers to come up with various security tools and protocols for the network.

The RCHAIN Cooperative

The RCHAIN Cooperative is a development and governance platform for the community. Members of the entity are fully responsible for the open-source platform, and they can offer and implement suggestions and updates for the platform. 

Anyone can join the Cooperative after paying a one-time membership fee of $20. This fair amount was chosen so that people of all financial backgrounds can join it and that in the spirit of decentralization, there’s not a barrier for joining. 

Joining the Cooperative gives you the following benefits: 

  • Ability to join and interact with other community members on RCHAIN’s Discord channels
  • Ability to participate in governance
  • Ability to vote on project proposals and budget allocations in a fair process of one vote per member, regardless of how many REV tokens they possess

The Cooperative has a Board of Directors, where different board seats have different term lengths of one, two, and three years. 

RChain Use Cases 

RCHAIN can support countless applications of many types, including but not limited to, the following: 

  • Wallets
  • Exchanges
  • Oracles and external adapters
  • Custom protocols
  • Smart contracts
  • Smart properties
  • Decentralized Autonomous Organisations (DAOs)
  • Social forums
  • Marketplaces 

The RCHAIN Team

The RCHAIN team is composed of a team of diverse backgrounds. The core team members are:

Founder Greg Meredith, who is also co-founder, board member, and president of the Cooperative. Meredith has thirty-plus years of experience with thought-leading tech projects. He was also the leading architect behind key projects for Microsoft and AT&T. 

Eykhholt is a co-founder and board member of the Cooperative, having under his belt more than thirty years of experience in the tech industry. He has been the principal architect of multiple tech projects in various companies, including Microsoft and Alston Grid. Eykhholt is also the founder of LivelyGig.

Board member and CEO of the Cooperative Kenny Rowe has years of experience in blockchain governance community building. Rowe is also the head of operations at MakerDAO and is a senior consultant of Coin Fund. 

Secretary and General Council Evan Jensen has experience in crypto-related law. Jensen holds a J.D. and Master’s in law from Seattle University. 

CFO Lisa Rice has twenty-plus years of experience in finance, from planning to accounting to corporate treasury.

RHOC, REV, and RCHAIN’s Private Token Sale 

RCHAIN held a private token sale on August 29, 2017, hitting a high of $15 million in under two weeks. 

RHOC tokens were selling at $0.2. While the sale did not have a maximum purchase cap, it had a cap on the highest amount – $50,000. 

RHOC tokens were ERC20 tokens before the mainnet launch. After RCHAIN moved to its own mainnet, RCHAIN token holders had to convert them into REV at a rate of 1:1. 

REV tokens play several roles in the ecosystem, including:

  • Staking
  • As payment for transaction fees
  • Facilitate the deployment of smart contracts
  • As a governance mechanism for the DAO

Tokenomics of REV

As of October 15, 2020, the Rchain token traded at $0.020066, with a 24-hour high and low of $0.021509 and $0. 019151, with a 24-hour volume of $256,578, a market cap of $9,689,508, and a market rank of #496. REV has a circulating and total supply of 482,890,386 and 870,663,574, respectively. 

REV tokens can be bought at MXC, Uniswap, CryptalDash, HotBit, and many more exchanges. 

Closing Thoughts

RCHAIN wants to not only improve blockchain but also bring it to solve real-life issues. The project’s team seems to know their stuff, and they seem to have quite forward-looking features and ideas. If the project keeps innovating and succeeds, it will be good for the blockchain space and society. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

SafePal S1 Hardware wallet Review: How Safe Is Safepal T Hardware Wallet?

SafePal S1 hardware crypto wallet was introduced to the crypto community in 2019. And though it’s relatively new, SafePal is a highly innovative wallet that seeks to provide crypto users with a “Secure, Simple, and Enjoyable crypto management solution.” The wallet has the backing of prominent crypto industry players like Binance Exchange. It has also integrated a host of operational and security features to help it achieve this goal.

SafePal S1 hardware crypto wallet was introduced to the crypto community in 2019. And though it’s relatively new, SafePal is a highly innovative wallet that seeks to provide crypto users with a “Secure, Simple, and Enjoyable crypto management solution.” The wallet has the backing of prominent crypto industry players like Binance Exchange. It has also integrated a host of operational and security features to help it achieve this goal.

SafePal S1 hardware crypto wallet was introduced to the crypto community in 2019. And though it’s relatively new, SafePal is a highly innovative wallet that seeks to provide crypto users with a “Secure, Simple, and Enjoyable crypto management solution.” The wallet has the backing of prominent crypto industry players like Binance Exchange. It has also integrated a host of operational and security features to help it achieve this goal.

According to the SafePal S1 website, the wallet was developed by a group of software, cybersecurity, and hardware experts, with the blessings of Binance. And one of its approaches to solving the constant challenges faced by other crypto hardware wallets was making it a 100% cold storage wallet.

This review will detail its features, understand how it works, vet its ease of use and fees. We will also provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to use SafePal Hardware Wallet before telling you if SafePal S1 is indeed the safest hardware wallet yet.

Key features

High-resolution screen: SafePal S1 hardware wallet has a sleek design that takes the shape of an MP3 player. It features a relatively wide and high-resolution color screen and a D-pad controller that you use to navigate the wallet. It also features a camera whose key role is scanning QR codes for other wallets and exchanges.

Mobile app compatible: SafePal hardware wallet developers have also come up with the SafePal wallet app that you can use to manage your crypto balance and facilitate crypto exchanges.

Monitor crypto portfolio: The SafePal mobile wallet app features the balance and activity tabs that you can use to monitor your crypto portfolio in real-time. For instance, the activity tab outlines your crypto transaction history (inflows and outflows) and, in turn, helps shape your crypto budget.

Integrated exchange: One of SafePal’s key partners is Binance – the largest crypto exchange in the world. And this partly explains why SafePal Wallet mobile app features BinanceDEX that SafePal users can use to trade and exchange different cryptos and exchanges.

Send crypto via social media: SafePal’s innovativeness is best highlighted by the wallet user’s ability to send crypto via the different social media networks. A SafePal wallet user can, for instance, send altcoins and tokens to an individual (regardless of whether they have a SafePal wallet or not) via social media.

Security features

Pin code: SafePal hardware wallet is secured with a PIN code that you set when creating a user account. It is also fitted with the number randomization tool that helps you avoid key loggers and other spying tools.

Password + pattern for the app: The SafePal mobile wallet app, on the other hand, is secured with a password or a pattern.

Recovery seed: SafePal will also present you with a backup and recovery seed for your wallet and private keys. When creating a user account on the platform, you will be presented with either 12 or 24 random phrases that form your wallet’s recovery seed. Write them down and save them offline.

Secure element: The SafePal hardware wallet is also fitted with a hack-proof EAL5+ secure element. This is a global finance industry-grade crypto chip that stores your private keys.

Two-factor authentication: All crypto transactions initiated via the SafePal mobile app must be signed and authenticated using the hardware device.

Key-deletion tool: SafePal S1 wallet features a key deletion tool that allows you to add and delete cryptos and tokens with ease.

Tamper-proof: The hardware wallet’s package features two tamper-proof seals, and so does its secure element. In the case of a suspected cyber hack or if someone tried to tamper with its secure element, the key deletion and self-destruct features will be triggered.

Offline cold storage: SafePal S1 hardware device is a 100% offline vault that connects to your phone or computer via a USB cable. It doesn’t maintain wireless (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or otherwise) connections with internet-connected devices.

How to set and activate the Safepal S1 Hardware wallet

Step 1: Download the SafePal S1 mobile app after purchasing the SafePal S1 hardware device

Step 2: Install and launch the app.

Step 3: Create a password and pattern for the mobile app

Step 4: Connect the SafePal S2 hardware device to the computer and choose your preferred language.

Step 5: Open the SafePal app and click on the ‘Add Wallet’ icon. Alternatively, tab the scan button on the top-right corner of the app.

Step 6: Follow the setup wizard prompts to create a user account.

Step 7: Chose a recovery seed (between 12-word seed and 24-word seed) and write it on the mnemonic cards that accompany the hardware wallet package.

Step 8: Verify that you’ve correctly copied this mnemonic phrase.

Step 9: Create and verify a PIN code for the mobile device

Step 10: Scan your wallet’s QR code using the mobile app to connect the two.

How to add/receive crypto into your SafePal S1 Hardware wallet

Step 1: Log in to your SafePal S1 wallet mobile app on click on the “Receive” icon

Step 2: Copy the wallet address and forward it to the party sending you crypto coins.

Alternatively:

Step 3: Have the party sending you cryptos/tokens scan your wallet’s QR code.

Step 4: Wait for the funds to reflect on the wallet.

How to send crypto from your SafePal S1 Hardware wallet

Step 1: Log in to the SafePal S1 mobile wallet app and click on the “Send” button.

Step 2: From the list of hosted cryptocurrencies and tokens, select the coin you want to send

Step 3: Enter the recipient’s wallet address or scan their QR code and the number of coins/tokens you wish to send

Step 4: Select the fee level.

Step 5: Confirm that the transaction details are correct and hit the send button. The app will then display a dynamic QR code specific to that transaction.

Step 6: Use the SafePal S1 hardware wallet to authorize the transfer. Simply use the hardware wallet’s camera to scan the app’s QR code and enter the PIN to sign and authorize the transaction.

Step 7: Confirm that the transaction has sailed through on the mobile app via the

SafePal S1 Hardware wallet ease of use

Though lengthy, SafePal S1 has a straightforward onboarding process. The wide display screen on the hardware wallet and easily navigable mobile wallet app interface has made interacting with the crypto vault, receiving, and sending cryptos relatively easy.

SafePal S1 hardware wallet is also available in over ten international languages.

SafePal S1 Hardware wallet supported currencies and countries.

According to the SafePal S1 website, the hardware wallet can support 1000+ cryptocurrencies and tokens. Wallet addresses are also generated offline by the hardware device.

SafePal S1 Hardware wallet cost and fees

SafePal S1 hardware wallet costs $59.99, but the company behind the brand is currently running a limited-time discount of $39.99.

The only other charge you will have to part with is the blockchain network’s network fees for transaction verification and confirmation.

What are the pros and cons of using the SafePal S1 Hardware Wallet?

Pros:

  • Very safe as it stores all your private keys offline in a tamper-proof secure element
  • SafePal S1 is cheaper than most other crypto hardware wallets
  • The hardware wallet supports a wide range of both cryptocurrencies and tokens
  • It features the largest and most liquid crypto exchange
  • The hardware is tamper-proof and embraces stringent security measures

Cons:

  • One may consider the wallet’s activation process quite laborious and not beginner-friendly
  • It maintains a rather complicated crypto transfer process

Comparing Safepal S1 Hardware wallet with other hardware wallets

Safepal S1 Hardware wallet vs. Ledger Nano S

SafePal S1 and Ledger Nano S are both highly advanced crypto hardware wallets. Their similarities include the fact that they both host 1000+ crypto coins and tokens. They store the client’s private keys offline and employ multi-layer protection tools around all the wallets, including two-factor authentication and offline wallet address generation. Both are also compatible with mobile apps and feature on-device screens that help ease navigation.

The two are also different in the pricing and mode of operation. For instance, while the Ledger Nano S hardware wallet costs around $60.00, SafePal S1 costs a paltry $39.99. Similarly, while the SafePal hardware device and its mobile app companion will only communicate through the hack-proof QR Codes, Ledger Nano S connects to its app companion via a wireless Bluetooth connection that is susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks.

Verdict: Is Safepal S1 Hardware wallet safe?

SafePal S1 is a safe hardware wallet. It has embraced several highly effective security and privacy measures to safeguard the integrity of the device and private keys held therein. And it all starts with tamper-proof packaging with two proprietary seals. It has also employed multiple security features, including two-factor authentication, offline generation of wallet addresses, and a 6-digit passcode for the hardware device and password + pattern for the SafePal S1 mobile wallet app. You only have to part with the $39.99 wallet cost.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

The Top 5 Cryptocurrencies for Trading

Cryptocurrencies present limitless opportunities for Forex traders. However, the prospect of trading with these non-traditional currencies can seem daunting, especially now that there are so many available. Here, we’ve outlined the top five cryptos for trading with this year and into the foreseeable future. Bitcoin Bitcoin is still the most famous cryptocurrency, largest,  and most […]

Cryptocurrencies present limitless opportunities for Forex traders. However, the prospect of trading with these non-traditional currencies can seem daunting, especially now that there are so many available. Here, we’ve outlined the top five cryptos for trading with this year and into the foreseeable future. Bitcoin Bitcoin is still the most famous cryptocurrency, largest,  and most […]

Cryptocurrencies present limitless opportunities for Forex traders. However, the prospect of trading with these non-traditional currencies can seem daunting, especially now that there are so many available. Here, we’ve outlined the top five cryptos for trading with this year and into the foreseeable future.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin is still the most famous cryptocurrency, largest,  and most valuable. It was also the first to be launched by the still anonymous “Satoshi Nakamoto” in 2009. It is accepted at more points of sale than any other cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is the first choice for most investors, traders, and speculators, as it is the most liquid cryptocurrency and can be sold, bought, or traded on all platforms, more than any alternative. Bitcoins are created in mining, which used to be inside the capacity of laptops and desktops but is no longer so easy to do. At current mining rates, 18 Bitcoins are manufactured approximately every 15 minutes.

This rate of creation will be gradually reduced until the total number of bitcoins in existence reaches a maximum of 21 million, which at this rate will occur approximately in the year 2140. All transactions, including the manufacture, by mining, of new bitcoins, the price of bitcoin, and all sales and transfers with bitcoins, are recorded in a ledger.

Transactions have to be accepted by most nodes in Bitcoin’s blockchain technology and, since Bitcoin is relatively widely owned, transactions take less than 1 minute to be fully verified. The bitcoin miners act as nodes within the blockchain, effectively managing the system and processing all transactions. Once the 21 million bitcoins have been extracted, miners will have a greater need to collect transaction fees to maintain profitability. For this reason, traders are concerned that cryptocurrency may face a major problem in the future.

It is worth noting, however, that the purchase of assets or even a currency exchange a transaction fee also takes place, for this reason, Bitcoin is not necessarily at a disadvantage compared to other marketable assets. Miners can now charge transaction fees if they wish and choose which outstanding transactions to prioritize if they generate a commission. This means that, if you are in trouble, you can pay a little more for your transaction to be processed faster.

The transactions and ownership of Bitcoins are effectively private, since, although the block chain’s general ledger is publicly accessible and has a record of every transaction that has been made, owners are registered by digital credentials (“keys”) and not by their name or other tax identifiers. Holders can store and protect their keys using a variety of methods, all of which will be treated in more detail later.

In addition to being the greatest and famous cryptocurrency, Bitcoin has a pioneering and rebellious image, not being backed by large corporations, and is seen as a bold intrusion. In other words, Bitcoin can be the Wikileaks of cryptocurrencies!

Ethereum

Ethereum is second by size compared to Bitcoin. It was released in 2015 and was developed by a Bitcoin programmer who was disenchanted with the functionality of Bitcoin. Stock market capitalization is slightly less than half that of Bitcoin and there are approximately 750,000 individual Ether owners (as the currency is technically known). As a means of payment, it is accepted by very few points of sale or any commercial organization.

The characteristic of the Ether is that it is a blockchain technology designed to perform “intelligent contracts”, which are computer protocols designed to facilitate, verify, or enforce the negotiation or performance of a contract. The way of thinking about Ethereum is like a currency for commercial contracts over the Internet, unlike Bitcoin, which pretends to be more a reserve of value and means of generalized exchange. The surprising thing about “smart contracts” is that they control themselves: contracts are automatically canceled when a party fails to fulfill its obligation.

In other respects, Ethereum is actually very similar to Bitcoin. It is also extracted, but the characteristics that govern its extraction in the future are less clear than the Bitcoin rules. Ethereum has a more corporate identity and was launched into the market by a Swiss company. Ethereum has suffered from some negative publicity such as its general ledger has been successfully hacked and has suffered several hard forks (Hard Forks), being the first destined to recover the stolen assets after the attack of the hackers. However, some cryptocurrency analysts see in Ethereum the potential to surpass Bitcoin in market capitalization at some point in the future. Even so, in recent months the capitalization of Bitcoin has grown proportionately faster than that of Ethereum.

Bitcoin In Cash (Bitcoin Cash)

Bitcoin Cash or Bitcoin Cash is a branch of Bitcoin, created on August 1, 2017, following a hard fork in the Bitcoin blockchain. This hard bifurcation was the result of differences between those who prioritized Bitcoin as a value reserve (i.e., an investment) over a medium of exchange (i.e., cash to make transactions). Some Bitcoin miners wanted the boundaries to be removed, which would speed up transaction times. The result was that Bitcoin split up to form a new cryptocurrency with a faster transaction time, called Bitcoin Cash. It is extracted and operated in the same way as Bitcoin. Bitcoin Cash is generally more useful for people who need to derive their income streams from cryptocurrency or make many quick business transactions. It can be taken into account as an investment vehicle as it has a niche market and, since the fork, there is no doubt that its price has risen faster than that of Bitcoin.

Ripple

Ripple is the third-largest cryptocurrency in the world. It was created in 2012 but had been in development for approximately 8 years. Ripple is quite different from Bitcoin and Ethereum, as it has a more corporate image and backing, and is actually a decentralized, consensus-verified transaction network rather than a cryptocurrency. It was developed as a real-time gross settlement system, fast and inexpensive and can confirm transactions in a few seconds, faster than any other cryptocurrency. Already being used by several major banks for years, which consider it a safer system than Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Its native currency is Ripple, but it can support any unit of value, be it fiduciary currency like the US dollar or even flight miles and the like. This adaptability, as well as its use by banks, attracts some investors who are confident that Ripple’s technology will dominate the market and could eventually overtake Ethereum and Bitcoin in market capitalization. But it must be said that its value has increased more slowly in recent years than the value of other important cryptocurrencies.

Litecoin

Litecoin is the fifth-largest cryptocurrency. It was created in 2011 and was a Bitcoin fork, that is, a branch of Bitcoin. Its way of working is almost the same as Bitcoin in every way, except that has always proven to have a faster processing speed and is currently capable of processing transactions approximately four times faster than Bitcoin.

Overview of the 5 Main Cryptodivisas

From an investment or trading perspective, it is important to know the differences and similarities between each of the main cryptocurrencies as a starting point. This way, you can make sure you don’t buy too much of the same type of asset. So, let’s look at the characteristics of each of the cryptocurrency. The main elements that differentiate them and that are likely to influence their future perspectives are your market capitalization, functionality, popularity, image, security, and processing speed.

The notable atypical asset is Ripple: it is very corporate and a network rather than just a currency. In the future, it may become the matrix through which all, or almost all, crypto transactions are executed. In addition to Ripple, the main rivalry is between Bitcoin and Ethereum, and the latter hopes to soon overtake Bitcoin as a market capitalization leader. Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin can be grouped as currencies that are designed to be optimized for exchange rather than savings/investment.

For these fundamental reasons, it may make sense to divide the five crypts into 3 groups:

  • Ripple
  • Bitcoin and Ethereum
  • Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin

When we talk about technical analysis of market values, the story is more complicated. The price movements of the last 6 months seem to suggest that there is validity in our categorization by groups. Note also that cryptocurrencies with lower market capitalization appear to show stronger volatility, which is not surprising since illiquid assets are usually more volatile.

Cryptomonedas Menores

If you’re considering becoming a long-term cryptocurrency investor, it’s worth thinking about buying a number of lesser-known currencies that may become larger. By investing in very risky assets, the best returns are often made from spectacular gains on just one or two instruments. Therefore, a portfolio of small investments in smaller cryptocurrencies could have a high potential return.

If you decide to invest in lesser-known cryptocurrencies, it is very important that you do your own research. You can see a list of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by capitalization here. In the meantime, we’d like to list some of these smaller alternatives that we think might end up standing out in the crowd.

Golem, based on a network where anyone can earn money by renting their unused computing capacity in the cloud. It is now the twenty-seventh largest cryptocurrency by stock market capitalization.

Monero: announced as virtually nonpirateable and with an unprecedented level of security. It is now the fourteenth largest cryptocurrency by stock market capitalization.

Storj: the currency of a cloud storage system based on the blockchain system, where the currency is issued in exchange for a provision of storage space.

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Cryptocurrencies

What’s Dusk (DUSK) All About?

Bitcoin actualized the idea of a decentralized currency, one that is beyond the control of any controlling authority and which lets users transact in a purely peer-to-peer fashion, removing the need for intermediaries. Built on top of the novel tech, ‘blockchain,’ Bitcoin inspired countless other cryptocurrencies and decentralized applications (DApps). 

Bitcoin actualized the idea of a decentralized currency, one that is beyond the control of any controlling authority and which lets users transact in a purely peer-to-peer fashion, removing the need for intermediaries. Built on top of the novel tech, ‘blockchain,’ Bitcoin inspired countless other cryptocurrencies and decentralized applications (DApps). 

Bitcoin actualized the idea of a decentralized currency, one that is beyond the control of any controlling authority and which lets users transact in a purely peer-to-peer fashion, removing the need for intermediaries. Built on top of the novel tech, ‘blockchain,’ Bitcoin inspired countless other cryptocurrencies and decentralized applications (DApps). 

However, Bitcoin’s creator did not envision some of the problems that impede it today, such as lack of anonymity – a highly prized factor in today’s world. There’s also the issue of extreme energy consumption that’s required to maintain and secure it. Then there’s the issue of not-so-guaranteed security, which has been another point of contention. The network’s 51% hypothetical attack hovers over it throughout. 

Throughout the years, the Bitcoin community has tried to come up with various solutions, but these either proved flawed or did not stand the dynamic nature of the blockchain space. Others presented with solutions but still missed the mark – e.g., by still lacking in robust security. 

Dusk is a blockchain and cryptocurrency protocol that attempts to meet the main challenges facing the space today, with the bonus of providing auditability of transactions. 

We’ll explore the Dusk protocol in detail while getting a closer look at its native token, DUSK, and how it fits in the puzzle. 

What’s Dusk? 

Launched in 2018, Dusk is a privacy-oriented blockchain protocol that wants to provide privacy, seamless programmability, and the ability to audit smart contracts. Based in Amsterdam, Dusk is the brainchild of a team that collectively has a wealth of experience in entrepreneurship, engineering, and blockchain, and have worked in some of the biggest companies in those fields, like Amazon, Mozilla, Reaktor, Zcash, NEO Research and so on. 

Dusk Network will be a blockchain protocol that will facilitate easy deployment of programmable DApps, hence becoming the backbone of a global and permissionless DApp ecosystem. The Dusk team hopes to eliminate the technical barriers that have held back crypto’s mainstream adoption. 

Some of the project’s highlights include: 

  • Private proof of stake consensus model through which block producers can stake in DUSK anonymously
  • Implementation of ZeroCaf, which allows it to achieve fast, safe, and elliptic curve-secured transactions
  • Built by a team of entrepreneurs, engineers, and blockchain experts with a work history at some of the most elite companies 

The Dusk team wants to guarantee on-chain privacy and programmability without compromising on scalability. The network can achieve this thanks to the following features: 

  • Private Proof-of-stake: The network implements a private version of the Proof-of-stake consensus protocol, a Segregated Byzantine Agreement (SBA) that runs on a ‘Proof of Blind Bid’ that enables block producers to stake in private
  • Decentralization: This means centralized staking pools do not apply in the staking process. Instead, participants are encouraged to do so autonomously.
  • Replaceability: Block generators are chosen in a random fashion without reference to earlier outcomes

For their part, these features are enabled by the following characteristics: 

  • A three-layered consensus model consisting of block generation, block reduction, and block agreement.
  • ZeroCaf for efficient, fast, and elliptic curve-secured operations 
  • Poseidon, a zero-knowledge hash function
  • Browser nodes that facilitate zero-knowledge verification and support Dusk’s virtual machine architecture
  • Instant Transaction Finality: On the Dusk protocol, transactions are final – as in they’re verified and recorded on the blockchain as soon as they’re produced

Value Proposition of Dusk

The Dusk team has designed Dusk to be an open-source network to become “the privacy infrastructure of choice for an entire ecosystem of solutions, whether in finance governance, cybersecurity, or something completely new.” With that, the value proposition of Dusk included the following: 

#1. Privacy: The Dusk network provides speed and decentralization without sacrificing on decentralization. DApp issuers on the platform can create zero-knowledge proofs, checks, and balances.

#2. Permissionless: The Dusk network is permissionless, meaning anyone from anywhere can join the network without requiring permission from any centralized party

#3. Public: Users do not need authorization from a trusted party to take part in the Dusk platform. They also need minimal processing power and inexpensive IT resources to join the network. Users that have staked in DUSK can participate in the network’s consensus.

#4. Compliance: By using zero-knowledge proofs, users can design real-life applications that adhere to legal requirements while simultaneously offering top security for them. And they vastly reduce costs by doing this on-chain. 

Compliance: through zero-Knowledge proofs, companies and projects can create real-world applications that can adhere to strict compliance requirements while still offering data privacy. This increases the ability to perform business processes on-chain, leading to significant cost reduction.

A Unique Consensus Model

Dusk implements a unique three-layered consensus mechanism to secure and maintain the network. 

These layers are as follows: 

Blind Bid Phase:

In this phase, network participants who wish to be block generators stake in DUSK tokens to get access to the block generation lottery. The staking process is known as a ‘blind bid’ because the amount staked and the staker’s identity are kept private and confidential. The blind bid is stamped with a secret number chosen by the block generating algorithm. This way, the stake owner can claim their transaction anytime while still preserving the privacy of their identity and the staked amount. 

Block Generation and Selection Phase:

For each round, block generators use their blind bid to enter the lottery. After that, they run a score, which is positively affected by the number of tokens staked. Since the protocol relies on zero-knowledge proof, the Blind Bid is significantly more secure than public Proof-of-stake systems while still exhibiting equal resilience to Sybil attacks. The candidate with the highest score is finally selected. 

Block Reduction Phase: 

After the block generators selection phase, a committee of participants known as ‘Provisioners’ conduct ‘Block Reduction,’ which is a process of gathering signatures and establishing the candidate block if the signatures pass a 75% threshold. The block reduction phase is also the Block Agreement phase, which is an additional phase designed to provide instant finality to the selected block and protect it against any attacks. 

The DUSK Token

  • DUSK is the native cryptocurrency of the Dusk network. It plays several roles, including the following: 
  • As a staking mechanism in order to participate in network consensus
  • As payment for on-chain transactions, deployment of DApps, and as gas fees
  • As an incentive/reward for consensus participants
  • As a governance mechanism, through which token holders can vote on critical decisions affecting the network

Key Metrics

The DUSK token posted the following metrics as of October 27, 2020. First off, it traded at $0. 039706, while ranking at #478. It had a market cap of $10,872,265, a 24-hour volume of $131,695, a circulating supply of 273,821,673, and a total supply of 500 million. DUSK had an all-time high of $0.614791 (July 22, 2019) and an all-time low of 0.011059 (March 13, 2020). 

Where to Buy and Store DUSK 

DUSK tokens are currently listed on a variety of legit exchanges, including Binance, HotBit, CoinDCX, Bittrex, Bitfinex, Binance DEX, Switcheo Network, and LiteBit.eu. In these exchanges, the token is listed against BTC, USD, BNB, ETH, EUR, and USDT.

The DUSK tokens can be stored in any Ethereum-compatible wallet, with choices including MetaMask, Guarda, Atomic Wallet, Trust Wallet, Parity, Ledger Nano, and Trezor. The network also provides an official Command Line Interface (CLI) wallet for the more tech-savvy. 

Final Thoughts 

The Dusk network brings novel concepts to solve some of the most persistent issues in blockchain. Its zero-knowledge proof implementations assure users of high-level security, and its three-way block consensus protocol ensures the process is as unbiased, legit, and safe as possible. Dusk ushers a new era of auditable smart contracts, ensuring users can make necessary upgrades to them anytime. Here’s to hoping the Dusk team holds more surprises for the future. 

Categories
Blockchain and DLT Cryptocurrencies

Introducing Fetch.AI (FET): What’s Is It

Blockchain has been touted as a solution to countless modern-day problems. But what if it could be seen as a catalyst for innovation? You know, innovation that brings us products and services that we simply hadn’t fathomed about before. 

Blockchain has been touted as a solution to countless modern-day problems. But what if it could be seen as a catalyst for innovation? You know, innovation that brings us products and services that we simply hadn’t fathomed about before. 

Blockchain has been touted as a solution to countless modern-day problems. But what if it could be seen as a catalyst for innovation? You know, innovation that brings us products and services that we simply hadn’t fathomed about before. 

Fetch.ai is an intelligence lab that wants to harness blockchain to power a decentralized digital economy. The platform will enable the sharing and connection of data globally and driven by machine learning and artificial intelligence. Fetch.ai will be open-source, allowing anyone from anywhere to connect to the network and carry out safe and secure tasks in a modern economy. 

This article explores the Fetch.ai network in-depth, from how it works to use cases, right down to its native token and where to purchase it. 

Understanding Fetch.ai

Fetch.ai is an artificial lab that wants to bring together tools and develop an infrastructure to power a decentralized digital economy. Based in Cambridge, Fetch.ai intends to create a distributed ledger platform to facilitate secure and safe sharing connection and data transfer on a global scale. 

Fetch wants to automate countless markets that currently require a lot of manual intervention. The goal is to have frictionless transactions at digital speeds. The Fetch.ai team imagines an evolved world where everybody has numerous economic agents on the platform, each operating to provide solutions for some of the most challenging today and tomorrow’s problems. 

Some of the highlights of the platform include: 

  • A near-autonomous integration for various components of complex systems
  • Frictionless integration and the deployment of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) in decision making without necessarily understanding how the two technologies work
  • Combining machine intelligence and human intelligence model to optimize decision-making processes

Key Features of Fetch.ai

Some of the notable features of Fetch.ai include: 

  • A digital infrastructure optimized for multi-agent systems.
  • A scalable ledger to power massive transaction volumes 
  • Synergetic computing to support ‘intelligent’ smart contract contracts 
  • An economic infrastructure to support dynamic market places
  • Navigation based on semantics and geography, and through which autonomous agents can oversee the smooth solving of problems

Key Products of Fetch.ai

#1. Consensus Mechanism:

Fetch.ai utilizes a combination of proof of stake consensus and other protocols that oversee the delivery of the consensus. New blocks are produced via the PoS protocol, with the transaction verified through the work put in between every two blocks. The work is then recorded on a directed acyclic graph (DAG) created between the two blocks. The DAG is ‘stamped’ by the blockchain, removing the need for a supervisor. 

#2. Fees and Rewards 

Fetch.ai runs a fees and rewards program, whereby processing nodes are incentivized with system incentives. Processing nodes are also in charge of data mining – the process through which transactions are produced and confirmed. 

Performance of the Fetch.ai Network

The Fetch.ai ledger is designed to scale, and its performance will differ depending on the current configured resources at the given moment. However, the network claims to have achieved speeds of up to 30,000+ transactions per second (TPS). The network is expected to increase configured resources as demand balloons. 

Open Economic Framework

The Open Economic Framework (OEF) is a second-layer protocol that provides services to participants (agents). Agents connect to the framework to connect with other agents to do business together. OEF is created to show the semantic, geographic, and economic views of that time to participants. 

Network nodes can either be just blockchain nodes or be both blockchain/OEF nodes. Initially, the OEF nodes will be either “trusted” or “trustless.” The “trustless” nodes can support the network anonymously, as can the pure blockchain nodes. However, the “trusted” nodes are eligible for access to agents’ information so they can render their intelligence and discovery capabilities to the network. Operators of trusted nodes must submit a legitimate public and legal identity and be accredited by the Fetch.ai Foundation.

Example Use Cases of Fetch.ai

Fetch.ai could potentially revolutionize a lot of industries, helping to improve efficiency and optimize processes. The project wants to increase efficiency and enhance solutions to daily problems via intelligent data sharing, ML, and AI. 

#1. Decentralized marketplace and decentralized finance

Fetch.ai will be used for decentralized commodity exchange, an innovative platform that will support improved liquidity in the trading of base metals and other commodities. Fetch.ai will assist market participants in circumventing barriers to entry via innovative technology. It will facilitate the digitalized trading of various materials, enabling market players to have at their disposal new risk management tools. 

#2. Transportation

Current transportation systems are mainly self-service, with commuters having to do so much just to move from one point to another. Fetch.ai will feature Autonomous Economic Agents who will do the heavy lifting on behalf of individuals. The Autonomous Economic Agents will be able to adjust to individuals’ preferences as they go, and they’ll be able to react in real-time to any unforeseen scenarios. 

#3. Smart parking and congestion solution

Fetch.ai’s autonomous agents can search and inform you about the available parking space and book it for you in advance. When you come back to your car, the system calculates the bill for you and completes the payment. This not only saves time, but it also removes the hassle of a manual process. And it can greatly help reduce congestion in cities. 

#4. Powering electric cars

Fetch.ai wants to be at the forefront of powering the next generation of cars, which are likely to take on in the near future like never before. For the technology to advance, major changes will have to be made. 

Fetch.ai’s intelligent ecosystem will enable the autonomous agent in your car to scour for the nearest charging system, book a space and direct you there, instead of having to go and wait at a filling station. As smart vehicles become more popular, more users will be flocking at recharge points. Smart optimization tech powered by Fetch.ai will ensure that increased demand is met by the nearest possible charging point. The system will also guide users to charging points near a coffee shop or playground, making their charging stop more enjoyable. 

#5. Supply chain 

Fetch.ai-powered supply chains will allow businesses to study future patterns, which will enable them to plan for potential disruptions for months while responding appropriately to changing customer behavior. 

Both AI and blockchain tech will assist companies in achieving more efficiency. For instance, AI can use real-time info to enable a company to choose the best trading partner for their current business situation.

The FET Token

FET tokens will be the native tokens of the Fetch.ai system and will play many roles, including the following: 

  • Connect participants and nodes to the Fetch.ai ecosystem: agents and network nodes will have to stake in FET to demonstrate their goodwill and intention to maintain good behavior. As the cost of joining the network escalates, it will be more difficult for undesirable elements to attempt to join the network. 
  • As a value exchange mechanism: FET tokens will be required to exchange value between and among agents, no matter their location. FET will be infinitely divisible, which means it can support very low-value transactions.
  • Facilitate access to the Fetch.ai search engine: Network users will have to stake in FET to assess search and discovery capabilities of the Fetch.ai perform. 
  • Facilitate access to Fetch.ai’s multi-dimensional space: Agents on Fetch.ai will need agents to interact with its digital world geographically, semantically, and economically. 

FET Token Allocation

As of October 15, 2020, Fetch.ai traded at $0.047499, with a market cap of $35,439,353, which placed it at #175 in the market. The token’s 24-hour volume was $4,706,418. It had a circulating supply of 746,113,681, a total and maximum supply of 1,152,997,575. FET had an all-time high of $0.0432695 (Mar 03, 2019) and an all-time high of $0.008270 (Mar 23, 2020), according to Coinmarketcap. 

Buying and Storing FET 

The FET token is currently listed on quite a variety of exchanges, including Binance, BitMax, MXC, HotBit, Bitfinex, Folgory, KuCoin, WazirX, BiKi, CoinDCX, Omgfin, IDEX, Bitsonic, Coinall, Fatbtc, Giotus, and Bitbns. 

FET tokens are compatible with the ERC-20 standard and hence can be kept in any wallet supporting Ethereum. Great options include Trust Wallet, MetaMask, Ledger, ethaddress, Parity, and more. Once Fetch.ai migrates to its mainnet, token users will be able to “easily convert ERC20 FET into native FET tokens and back again.” 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Archos Safe-T Mini wallet Review: Features, Security, Ease of Use, Pros, and Cons?

Safe T Mini is an offline hardware wallet developed by Archos – the French Multinational electronics manufacturer – and introduced to the market in July 2018. It is an ultra-safe secure element hosted on a small circular device made of polycarbonate material. It is an off-shoot and the more affordable alternative of Archos flagship – Safe T Touch hardware wallet. But apart from the visual difference between the two Archos hardware devices, they share a similar commitment to maintaining user funds safe.

Archos Safe T Mini crypto hardware wallet

Safe T Mini is an offline hardware wallet developed by Archos – the French Multinational electronics manufacturer – and introduced to the market in July 2018. It is an ultra-safe secure element hosted on a small circular device made of polycarbonate material. It is an off-shoot and the more affordable alternative of Archos flagship – Safe T Touch hardware wallet. But apart from the visual difference between the two Archos hardware devices, they share a similar commitment to maintaining user funds safe.

Safe T Mini is an offline hardware wallet developed by Archos – the French Multinational electronics manufacturer – and introduced to the market in July 2018. It is an ultra-safe secure element hosted on a small circular device made of polycarbonate material. It is an off-shoot and the more affordable alternative of Archos flagship – Safe T Touch hardware wallet. But apart from the visual difference between the two Archos hardware devices, they share a similar commitment to maintaining user funds safe.

In this Safe T Mini hardware wallet review, we will be detailing some of the operational and security features embraced by the wallet. We will also look at how they have impacted Safe T’s ease of use, the number of supported cryptos and compare it to similar hardware wallets. More importantly, we will tell you if Safe T Mini is indeed a safe crypto hardware wallet.

Archos Safe T key features

On-device screen: Archos Safe T Mini hardware wallet features a small OLED screen that you can use to check your crypto balance offline and authenticating transaction details for outbound transfers.

Navigation buttons: Below the screen of the Safe T hardware device are two big navigation buttons. Their key role in helping you navigate the hardware device, especially when checking and confirming outbound crypto transfers.

Web Extension controlled: Given the relatively small screen of the hardware device, most of the Safe T Mini operations like initiating crypto transfers and tracking your portfolio are executed via the Safe T web extension. But unlike most other wallets that will connect to virtually any web browser, you will need a special software bridge (compatible with Windows, Linux, or macOS) to connect the hardware device and the extension.

Compatible with software wallets: Safe T Mini hardware wallet is also compatible with several other software wallets, including Electrum, MyEtherWallet, and MyCrypto. Linking the hardware wallet with either of these software wallets helps boost the wallet’s efficiency and increases the number of supported currencies.

Security features

Passcode: When setting up the Safe T Mini hardware wallet, you will be required to set up a six-digit passcode that serves as its primary security feature. You are also advised to support this with a multi-character password when you link it to either of the supported software wallets.

Recovery seed: Safe T Mini allows for the recovery of private keys should you lose access to the hardware device. That’s why you will be provided with a 24-word backup seed that you can use to restore wallets and recover private keys. For added security, these are generated by the hardware device offline and not by the web extension.

Two-factor authentication: Even though most Safe T wallet transactions are initiated via the web extension, they must be signed and verified by the hardware device.

Open source: Safe T mini hardware wallet is also built on an open-sourced technology. Its source code is available for viewing and auditing by its users and blockchain/crypto security experts. You can access this code on the Safe T Mini hardware’s page on GitHub.

Secure element: Safe T Mini hardware features a hack/tamper-proof secure element that stores your private keys. It is a combination of the ultra-safe and highly encrypted chipset memory as well as a Secured Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory.

Cold storage: Safe T Mini stores all your private keys and any other sensitive data in the hardware device 100% offline. None of this information is recorded or stored in Archos servers.

Key deletion tool: If you enter the hardware device’s PIN code incorrectly four consecutive times, you will trigger the key erasure protocol to delete all the wallet content and lock the devices.

How to set and activate the Archos Safe-T Mini Wallet

Step 1: After purchasing the Safe T Mini hardware device, download the software bridge that’s compatible with your computer device from the Archos.com website

Step 2: Install the software and connect the device to the computer using its USB cable.

Step 3: The hardware device is pre-loaded with a firmware that will automatically initiate the wallet activation process

Step 4: On the activation popup window, click “Install Firmware.”

Step 5: After successful installation, unplug and then reconnect the hardware device.

Step 6: The wallet has been successfully connected to the computer

Step 7: Now use the device to generate the 24-words recovery seed and write it down

Step 8: Choose a Username for your wallet

Step 9: Create a unique 6-digit passcode for the hardware device

Step 10: The wallet is now active and ready for use. Now you can start generating wallet addresses for the cryptos and tokens you want to store here.

How to add/receive Crypto into your Archos Safe-T Mini Wallet

Step 1: Log in to your Safe T Mini wallet web extension page and click on “Receive.”

Step 2: Copy the wallet address or the QR code

Step 3: Send them to the individual or exchange sending you Crypto

Step 4: Wait for funds to reflect on your app.

How to send Crypto from your Archos Safe-T Mini Wallet

Step 1: Log in to your Safe T Mini wallet web extension and click ‘Send’ on the user dashboard.

Step 2: From the list of cryptos and tokens hosted on the wallet, select the coin you want to transfer

Step 3: On the transfer window, enter the recipient’s wallet address

Step 4: Enter the number of coins you wish to send and hit send.

Step 5: Connect the Safe T hardware device to the computer and sign in to authorize the transaction.

Alternatively:

Link the hardware wallet with such software wallets as Electrum or MyCrypto that have an easier sending and receiving Crypto process.

Archos Safe-T Mini Wallet ease of use

Safe T Mini is relatively easy to use. It features an on-device screen that is complimented by a clean and easily navigable user interface for the Safe T web extension. And though one may consider its onboarding process to be complex and too laborious for a beginner crypto trader/investor, it is quite straightforward. Moreover, one can link the Safe T hardware wallet with the more convenient and easier to use software wallets.

Most importantly, the multilingual Archos website (available in 5 languages) contains numerous videos and explanatory guides that you can use to guide your interaction with the wallet.

Archos Safe-T Mini Wallet supported currencies.

Archos Safe T Mini is a multicurrency hardware wallet. And though its website claims that the wallet supports over 75% of all cryptocurrencies and tokens, we found it interesting that you can’t store some hugely popular cryptos like Ripple (XRP).

Archos Safe-T Mini Wallet cost and fees

Safe T Mini hardware wallet has its retail price capped at $59.99 or €49.99.

Storing coins and interacting with most other aspects of the wallet is free, but you will have to pay blockchain network fees every time your send cryptos and tokens to other wallets and exchanges. This fee is collected by blockchain miners or network administrators and not Archos.

Archos Safe-T Mini Wallet customer support

Archos has a highly responsive customer support team. Safe T Mini wallet users can contact this team via phone for after-sales services, email, or direct message them on such social media platforms as Twitter and Telegram.

What are the pros and cons of using the Archos Safe-T Mini Wallet?

Pros:

  • Safe T Mini wallet has embraced a host of highly effective security measures, including 2FA and data encryption.
  • It is relatively inexpensive when compared to other hardware wallets like Safe T Touch.
  • It is hugely transparent and is built on an open-sourced technology.
  • Safe T Mini is ultra-light (12g) and thus highly portable.

Cons:

  • The wallet doesn’t support some leading cryptocurrencies like Ripple.
  • It is not beginner-friendly

Comparing Archos Safe-T Mini wallet with other hardware wallets

Archos Safe-T Mini wallet vs. Ledger Nano S wallet

Safe T Mini and Ledger Nano are both highly secure and transparent hardware wallets. They both support a wide range of cryptocurrencies and tokens and embrace a multi-layered security protocol around. For instance, they both have the two-factor authentication functionality enabled, they are built on an open-sourced technology, and store client private keys and personal data in 100% offline vaults.

However, some of the differences between the two include the fact that Ledger has a more solid reputation. It supports a larger number of coins and cryptos (including all the popular cryptocurrencies) and can be considered more beginner-friendly. Safe T Mini wallet, on the other hand, has a more responsive customer support system.

Verdict: Is the Archos Safe-T Mini hardware wallet safe?

Safe T Mini hardware wallet is a safe wallet and has reliable and highly effective security measures. These include two-factor authentication, storing client funds in 100% offline storage, key erasure tool, military-grade encryption of user data/private keys, and providing wallet users with a recovery seed. You only have to part with the $59.99 acquisition cost.

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Crypto Videos

The Only Sustainable Way To Make Money Mining – 76% of Crypto Miners Use Renewable Energy!

https://youtu.be/cj639AA3qfk

https://youtu.be/cj639AA3qfk

76% of Crypto Miners use Renewable Energy

 

Green planet earth with solar energy batteries installed on it

The rising energy demand to operate proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining, especially for Bitcoin, has been a hotly debated topic in the most recent months. However, interesting and unexpected news came from the research of the 3rd Global Cryptoasset Benchmarking Study performed by the University of Cambridge. This study shows that 76% of crypto miners actually use electricity from renewable energy sources as a part of their energy consumption mix.

The study found that more than 39% of the total energy consumed by proof-of-work cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and others comes from renewable energy sources.
This finding contrasts with a previous study regarding proof-of-work crypto mining done by the same university, which found that only 28% of the total energy consumed for crypto mining came from renewable resources. Taking a look at the data from 2018, 60% of the miners used renewable energy sources as a part of their energy mix.
According to the latest study, the most common energy source for miners is hydroelectric power, with almost 62% of miners reporting that they are using hydroelectricity. Hydroelectric power is followed by coal and natural gas sources that take the second and third spots at 38% and 36%, respectively.

Crypto miners also reported that they use wind, oil, and solar energy, which are common but to a lesser degree than the aforementioned three sources.

The report also worked on dividing miner energy consumption by region, noticing that miners from Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Europe, as well as North America use close to an equal percentage of hydroelectric power when compared to electricity from other sources, such as natural gas, coal, wind, and oil.
Using coal as an energy source is most common in the APAC region, where it contributes almost an equal amount of electricity to crypto miners as hydroelectric sources. Miners from Latin America, on the other hand, reported that they do not use coal-fired electricity to mine cryptos at all.

The study also notes that miners from the APAC region contribute almost 77% of the Bitcoin hash power, all while using the lowest amounts of renewable energy sources. On the other hand, while North America adds only 8%of the total Bitcoin hash power, 63% of the energy consumed in mining Bitcoin in that region came from renewable sources. Europe is a bit behind North America, with close to 30% of its crypto mining powered using renewable energy. Europe contributes nearly 10% of the worldwide Bitcoin hash power.

While using renewable energy as a main or only source of energy for mining is still far away, more and more miners are starting to use alternative sources in search of cleaner and better ways to make a profit.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s NKN All About?

When the internet came, the idea was to have a reliable, safe, and diverse web where people from anywhere could visit and gain knowledge and information. But decades down the line, we have an internet that’s increasingly censored, user data is insecure, and is vulnerable to more inefficiencies. 

When the internet came, the idea was to have a reliable, safe, and diverse web where people from anywhere could visit and gain knowledge and information. But decades down the line, we have an internet that’s increasingly censored, user data is insecure, and is vulnerable to more inefficiencies. 

When the internet came, the idea was to have a reliable, safe, and diverse web where people from anywhere could visit and gain knowledge and information. But decades down the line, we have an internet that’s increasingly censored, user data is insecure, and is vulnerable to more inefficiencies. 

With the promise of blockchain, we have the opportunity to make the internet a safer, more secure, and reliable place. 

NKN – ‘a new kind of network’ is a blockchain-based platform that wants to change the internet’s trajectory by powering a decentralized, more anonymous and peer-to-peer online ecosystem. Hopefully, this will steer the internet into more efficiency, sustainability, and safety for users. In this article, we delve deeper into the NKN ecosystem and its native token, NKN. 

What’s NKN?

The New Kind of Network is a peer-to-peer internet protocol powered by a new kind of blockchain. It uses incentives to attract users who share their idle bandwidth and connectivity to keep the network going. The end goal is to create an open, efficient, and decentralized internet so developers can create a low-cost and more accessible internet for everyone. At the time of writing, NKN has about 28183 full nodes. 

The Problem with Today’s Internet 

The internet’s original idea was to democratize information, making it accessible to everyone everywhere at little to no cost. However, that idea is getting more endangered every day. For instance, we have net neutrality, which is being threatened. Information, which is supposed to be free, is usually under the threat of censorship in some jurisdictions, and user privacy is not guaranteed. All this points to the fact that the internet, as we know it, requires a reform. 

Limitations of Peer-to-peer Networks

Peer-to-peer networks have been proposed to solve this issue. However, they face certain challenges that hold them back. These include but are not limited to vulnerability to malicious attacks, no economic incentivization, and scalability is often sacrificed. 

NKN wants to help solve these problems with the following solutions: 

  • Any node can connect to the network remotely
  • Supporting network sharing
  • Promoting net neutrality
  • Support an open and scalable network
  • Support efficient routing
  • Tokenize the connectivity of networks and reward active nodes with incentives
  • Design a more secure, economically viable, and scalable blockchain network

Core Components of NKN

NKN is built on several core components that keep it running. 

#1. Decentralized Data Transmission Network (DDTN) Scheme

This is an attempt at ‘blockchainizing’ the building blocks of the NKN infrastructure. The goal is to support network connectivity and data transmission efficiency by using independent relay nodes to keep the network lean at all times. 

#2. Cellular Automata powered DDTN: This is a tool that reimagines the blockchain. It supports concepts like peer equivalence and concurrency. 

#3. Cellular Automata Driven Consensus: The NKN network can achieve consensus in a high fault-tolerant manner, thanks to Cellular Automata.

#4. Proof of Relay: NKN will implement Proof of Relay (PoR). This mechanism will incentivize participants to contribute to the network by sharing their connectivity and bandwidth and getting token rewards in return.

#5. Tokenization: NKN will implement the tokenization of data and its transmission to incentivize participants to share bandwidth resources and get rewards in return.

#6. Toolkit for DApp development: NKN provides a toolkit for developers to build DApps quickly and painlessly. Because these tools are already provided, developers can concentrate on creativity, satisfactory user experiences, and economic viability.

Proof of Relay 

NKN reaches network consensus through Proof of Relay (PoR), a ‘useful’ Proof of Work (PoW) mechanism, where a participating node is rewarded based on their network connectivity and how fast they can transmit data. Nodes prove their contribution by adding digital signatures on data before transferring it. 

The power expended by PoR is used by the whole network. Also, ‘mining’ involves providing transmission power to the system. 

Current DApps Powered by NKN

#1. nMobile

This is a mobile app supporting the NKN wallet, a chat tool known as D-Chat, news, and IOT capabilities.

#2. D-Chat

This is a serverless chat tool for both open and private chatting, depending on the participating parties.

#3. nFTP

This is a secure, peer-to-peer, and serverless file transfer service.

#3. NShell

This is a remote shell that’s safer than Secure Shell.

Why NKN?

NKN proposes these advantages over other blockchain networks: 

#1. A large number of nodes

The NKN mainnet currently features up to 25,000 full nodes, making it highly scalable.

#2. High speed

NKN supports the ‘aggregated speed’ of various routes. With more nodes, the throughput of the whole network can be scaled. 

#3. Zero server

The NKN network is fully serverless, operating in a fully decentralized and peer-to-peer fashion. This significantly cuts on maintenance costs as well as complexity. It also removes a single point of failure that would attract malicious attacks. 

#4. Unique and global ID 

NKN supports unique ID addresses to facilitate services from anywhere around the world and so that more people can engage with the platform

#5. Extra security

NKN supports cryptographic, end-to-end, and hop-by-hop encryption, protecting users’ data and info from third-party prying eyes. 

#6. Low latency

NKN can support a broad range of applications such as 3D gaming, augmented and virtual reality, edge computing, as well as IOT. 

NKN Community Strategy and Overview

NKN’s community growth strategies are as follows: 

  • Working with various players in the crypto and blockchain community to host activities such as conferences, hackathons, and so on
  • Attracting non-crypto users to the fold via its mobile app, which has an in-built private messaging and wallet
  • Publish content to make DApp development easier for developers
  • Incentivize mining nodes in developing countries with extra token rewards 

Key Tokenomics

As of Oct 13, 2020, NKN traded at $0.018891, with a market cap of 11 million, which placed it at #455. The token’s 24-hour volume was $1,102,790 and a circulating, total, and maximum supply of 583,666,666, 700 million, and 1 billion, respectively. The token has an all-time high of $0.545913 (June 02, 2018), an all-time low of $0.006411 (Mar 13, 2020). 

Buying and Storing NKN

NKN is being offered on various exchanges, including Binance, Bilaxy, LATOKEN, MXC, Huobi, VCC Exchange, CoinDXC, Gate.io, IDEX, Huobi, Upbit, Bittrex, and Uniswap. The token is listed as a market pair of BTC, USDT, BNB, HT, WETH, ETH.

For storage, NKN offers official wallets, including nMobile, nStatus, and Vault by NKNx. 

Final Words

NKN provides a safe and scalable platform for DApp developers to create secure and low-cost apps for users everywhere. Thanks to an accessible DApp creation toolkit, they can focus on creativity, user experience, and business logic. And NKN’s incentive model encourages people to join and support the network. Will NKN succeed in providing better connectivity to people and revolutionizing the internet? We’ll be watching.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Button wallet Review: How Safe The Telegram Messenger Linked wallet?

Button Wallet can be best described as a messenger-linked and multicurrency crypto vault. Unlike most other software wallets available in mobile and desktop apps or web extensions, Button Wallet is housed by the telegram app. It is more of an expertly crafted and feature-rich telegram bot created by ten highly experienced blockchain and programming experts who are currently based in San Francisco, California.

Button Wallet can be best described as a messenger-linked and multicurrency crypto vault. Unlike most other software wallets available in mobile and desktop apps or web extensions, Button Wallet is housed by the telegram app. It is more of an expertly crafted and feature-rich telegram bot created by ten highly experienced blockchain and programming experts who are currently based in San Francisco, California.

Button Wallet can be best described as a messenger-linked and multicurrency crypto vault. Unlike most other software wallets available in mobile and desktop apps or web extensions, Button Wallet is housed by the telegram app. It is more of an expertly crafted and feature-rich telegram bot created by ten highly experienced blockchain and programming experts who are currently based in San Francisco, California.

According to the Button Wallet development team, they set out to design an all-in-one platform that addresses all the challenges faced by the ordinary crypto wallet. And by integrating their system with the most popular app in the crypto circles, they hoped to leverage more than its large following (of approximately 200 million users). They were also looking for a platform that would help address the ease of use, speed, security, and customer support challenges rocking the crypto industry.

In this review, we analyze the Button Wallet and the steps taken by its developers towards achieving this enviable vision. We detail its key operational and security features, vet its ease of use, provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to use the Button Wallet, and list its pros and cons.

Button wallet key features

Telegram linked wallet: Button wallet is not a software of firmware but a telegram bot. It is embedded into the popular app implying that you first need to download the telegram app before using the crypto wallet-cum-exchange.

Cross-platform: Button wallet can be used on both mobile and desktop apps. The fact that it is a bot means that you don’t have to worry about finding the version of the app that is compatible with your phone or computer’s operating system.

Send to name: Button wallet has also made it possible for its users to send cryptos to a recipient’s user handle regardless of whether they have installed Button Wallet or not. This goes a long way in helping Button wallet users avoid the often-costly mistakes associated with getting the recipient’s wallet address wrong.

Inbuilt exchange: In addition to storing cryptocurrencies and tokens, Button wallet integrates Changelly – a crypto-to-crypto exchange services provider. This lets you buy or exchange cryptos and tokens with over 80,000 Button wallet peers and the crypto community at large.

Portfolio tracker: The button wallet bot features several tabs that let you track your crypto portfolio in real-time. These include the balance, token balance, and payment history tabs.

Automate notifications: Button wallet lets you automate most of the wallet functions and customize notifications that reflect on your phone’s display in real-time. Note that you can also automate notifications for exchange rates and transactions for your wallet.

Purchase crypto with card: You can also buy cryptocurrencies or tokens and pay virtually using any credit/debit card. To achieve this, Button Wallet has collaborated with Wyre and Moonpay – two fiat-to-crypto exchanges that process credit and debit card payments.

Develop Dapps: Button wallet recently collaborated with Ethereum Classic Labs – an accelerator program that funds innovative blockchain systems – to design and develop LightySig. This highly innovative project created a single programming library that is compatible with multiple blockchains. The project is best known for its ability to create a Dapp environment that allows blockchain technology experts to develop decentralized apps.

Button wallet security features

Password encryption: When creating a user account for the Button bot wallet, you will be asked to create a password that protects your digital assets and serves as the primary encryption tool.

Leverage Telegram security measures: Telegram is considered one of the most secure social messaging apps. Communications between users are highly encrypted, and it also claims to be free of any government influence or censorship – two factors that make it a darling for most crypto investors. Button wallet seeks to take advantage of all these security and privacy measures put in place by Telegram.

Non-custodial + QR code: Button wallet is a non-custodial wallet that doesn’t store your private keys in Button company or Telegram servers. Additionally, unlike most other hardware and software wallets that provide you with seed for backing up and recovering your digital assets, Button wallet provides you with a QR code.

Integrate Telegram Passport: When interacting with Button wallet services like buying a card that requires KYC/AML verification, Button accepts the identification documents that have been verified by Telegram Passport.

How to set and activate the Button wallet

Step 1: Start by searching for Button Wallet bot in your Telegram app. Alternatively, open the Button wallet website and click the “Use Telegram” icon on the site’s homepage.

Step 2: Click Start

Step 3: Chose the preferred bot language.

Step 4: Since you are just starting, tap on the ‘Create account.’

Step 5: The wallet will now direct you to the account creation page of the Button website. It asks for your email and asks you to create a password.

Step 6: Agree to the terms and conditions and terms of use and click confirm

Step 7: The website will send you a QR code and also present you with the downloadable version of your QR code

Step 8: The bot wallets is now active and ready for use

How to add/receive crypto into your Button wallet

Step 1: Log in to telegram and open the Button wallet channel

Step 2: Click on the “Deposit” icon.

Step 3: Select the coin you wish to deposit

Step 4: Copy the wallet address provided and forward it to the individual or exchange sending you coins

Alternatively:

Step 1: Log in to your Telegram channel and open the Button wallet channel.

Step 2: Click on the “Buy Cryptocurrency” tab.

Step 3: Select the Currency or token you wish to buy and click on the ‘Buy’ tab.

Step 4: It will redirect you to the MoonPay exchange that is integrated into your website.

Step 5: Follow the prompts to complete the transaction.

How to send crypto from your Button wallet

Step 1: Log in to your Telegram and open the Button Wallet bot channel

Step 2: Select the currency you wish to send

Step 3: Enter the number of coins to send

Step 4: Enter the receiver’s wallet address or their Telegram username.

Step 5: Confirm that the transaction details are okay and send

Button wallet ease of use

Button wallet is one of the easiest to use and most beginner-friendly crypto storage vaults we have come across. There is no onboarding process as you only need to search for Button Wallet bot in Telegram and create a password on their website via the redirect link. Buying, receiving, and sending cryptos in and out of the wallet is very straightforward and requires no previous experience.

Button wallet supported currencies and countries.

Button wallet bot currently supports seven major cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Dai, Stellar, Waves) and 800+ ERC-20 tokens.

It is also available in 200+ countries and territories.

Button wallet cost and fees

Using and storing your cryptos in a Button wallet is free. You only have to pay the variable transaction fee charged by the crypto exchange or the blockchain network fee charged by miners and administrators when you send cryptos from one wallet to another.

Button wallet customer support

To access support, click on the three bars at the Button wallet channel’s top-right corner and select help. This will direct you to the bot support channel where the technical support bot will address simple challenges while complicated challenges will be forwarded to the wallet developers.

What are the pros and cons of using the Button Wallet?

Pros:

  • Button operates in the ultra-safe environment created by Telegram.
  • The wallet is easy to use and beginner-friendly.
  • It doesn’t require you to download another app or software.
  • Button wallet simplifies the process of backing your private keys by providing you with a QR Code in place of a recovery seed.
  • It has one of the most responsive customer support team.

Cons:

  • It is not immune to threats facing hot wallets.
  • The wallet will only support a limited number of cryptocurrencies.

Comparing Button wallet with other multicurrency wallets

Button wallet vs. eToro

Button Wallet and eToro are similar – they are both hot wallets. They are multicurrency wallets that support a limited number of coins and are also considered safe.

But unlike eToro that stores cryptocurrencies on behalf of its clients and maintain its own crypto exchange, Button wallet is a non-custodial crypto vault that integrates third-party crypto to crypto and fiat to crypto exchanges.

Verdict: Is Button Wallet bot safe?

Well, it has the backing of the safest social messaging app. Further, the telegram app is tied to your phone and requires two-factor authentication when logging in to another device. You also get to create a password when creating a user account. Our reservations with the wallet relying heavily on Telegram security features is that the app isn’t immune to hacks and such other threats as malicious viruses. Plus, the two-factor authentication only applies to Telegram when signing in, not when sending cryptocurrencies from the wallet.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Introducing Loopring: A Step By Step Guide

The idea of blockchain was to empower people to have real ownership and control over their finances. However, that’s not what we have today – at least when you consider a powerful player in the crypto space – exchanges. 

The idea of blockchain was to empower people to have real ownership and control over their finances. However, that’s not what we have today – at least when you consider a powerful player in the crypto space – exchanges. 

The idea of blockchain was to empower people to have real ownership and control over their finances. However, that’s not what we have today – at least when you consider a powerful player in the crypto space – exchanges. 

The biggest crypto exchanges in the space are centralized – which means users do not have explicit ownership of their funds, and they have to rely on intermediaries such as banks to exchange, transfer and send crypto. 

But centralized exchanges (CEXs) are beset with security and lack of transparency – factors that result in the loss of users’ funds. On the other hand, we have decentralized exchanges (DEXs), which are not perfect either. From scalability problems to liquidity issues, they also come up short. 

Loopring is an exchange protocol that seeks to unite exchanges in a way that people can make trades in a secure, scalable, and decentralized environment. Trades on Loopring happen off-chain, meaning they are not affected by shortcoming for the blockchain, such as low scalability. 

This article takes a closer look at how the Loopring network works. We’ll also check how the Loopring token (LRC) is doing in the market. 

Understanding Loopring

Loopring is a decentralized exchange protocol based on Ethereum that allows traders to transfer crypto-assets across different exchanges. Loopring is not an exchange per se but rather a protocol that facilitates the decentralized exchange of cryptocurrencies. 

At its core, Loopring works this way: the protocol pools all orders sent through it and then matches these orders through the order box of other multiple decentralized exchanges. Loopring supports both decentralized and centralized exchanges, and it’s also blockchain-agnostic, meaning it can be deployed on any blockchain that supports smart contracts. That means blockchains like Ethereum, Qtum, Neo, and others are in play. 

The Qtum team believes that “crypto-assets trading should be and will be risk-free and worry-free in terms of custody. Traders should have strong cryptographic guarantees that the assets cannot be wrongfully taken from the platforms where they trade – not by hackers, not by exchange owners, and not even by state-level adversaries.” 

The Problem with Centralized Exchanges

Centralized exchanges are one of the biggest gaps in the race to full decentralization. The primary risks of CEXes are lack of guaranteed security, lack of transparency, and lack of liquidity. 

#1. Lack of security

Lack of security is underscored by the fact that users typically surrender control of their private keys – and hence funds – to the exchange. This exposes users to potential security breaches – and there have been many – which could cause loss of funds. There’s also the issue of honest mistakes, whereby CEX developers make accidental, loss-causing errors in the protocol. 

#2. Lack of transparency 

Users can simply not explicitly trust exchange operators’ intentions. This means they cannot know whether the entity is acting unfairly or dishonestly for whatever reason. Exchanges can be compelled by authorities to shut down or freeze your account. They can also go bankrupt or pull an exit scam. 

#3. Lack of liquidity

The CEXs landscape is characterized by fragmented liquidity. It’s usually a winner-take-all scenario, where the exchange with the biggest volume or most trading pairs wins as most users prefer to use one exchange. This creates a barrier for new exchanges, which find it difficult to build up liquidity. The result is an unfair and fragmented landscape where the big exchanges have all the power, a situation that resembles the legacy financial system. 

The Problem With Decentralized Exchanges

Decentralized exchanges mainly differ from centralized ones in that in the former, users have complete control over their private keys and can perform peer-to-peer exchanges. 

However, DEXs grapple with the problem of low performance, liquidity issues, and infrastructural limitations. Low performance is a result of low scalability, which in turn is caused by structural constraints such as caps on the number of transactions that can be held in one block at a time. Liquidity issues arise when users have to search across disparate blockchains for matching orders. 

How Loopring Works

On Loopring, users do not deposit funds into an exchange to start trading. The trader’s funds remain in their wallet throughout. This affords them complete autonomy over their money during the whole process – meaning they can modify the order at any point if necessary. 

Placing an Order

Placing an order happens entirely on the loopring.io wallet. After you clear the order to go through (via your private key), it is relayed to smart contracts on the Loopring network and a series of relay nodes outside the blockchain. Smart contracts facilitate the exchange of the money for the desired currency, while the relay nodes maintain order books and broadcast trade requests to ring-miners. 

Ring Miners

Ring mining is a feature of relay nodes. Relay nodes with this feature are known as ‘ring-miners,’ and they create order-rings by stringing together orders from disparate blockchains. This happens until all orders are filled. In return, ring-miners are compensated with Loopring (LRC) tokens. Relay nodes can communicate with each other, build order books, and mine order-rings the way they choose. 

Settling Trades 

When an order passes through, smart contracts evaluate them to verify their authenticity. If everything is in order, the desired currency is transferred to the right recipient. This procedure happens on a wallet-to-wallet basis.

Participants in the Loopring Ecosystem

The Loopring ecosystem is kept alive by a number of participants who jointly contribute to its running. Let’s get a look at them: 

#1. Wallets 

This is a common wallet interface through which users can access tokens and relay orders to Loopring. The network incentivizes wallet owners to create orders by rewarding them with LRC, just like with ring-miners. 

#2. Consortium Liquidity Sharing Blockchain

This is a network that facilitates the sharing of orders and liquidity. Nodes can join an existing network through the relay software, creating a system for order and liquidity sharing. This all happens on a consortium blockchain designed for near real-time ordering and getting rid of old history to keep the network light and scalable. Relays do not have to join a network; they can work alone or create their own sharing network. 

#3. Relays/Ring-miners

Relays are nodes in charge of broadcasting orders to the network, as well as maintaining order books. They also stitch together orders from different blockchains so that they can be filled.

 #4. Loopring Protocol Smart Contracts (LPSC)

These are public and free smart contracts that receive and evaluate orders, transfer and settle them in a trustless manner, and incentivize ring-miners and wallets with Loopring token rewards. 

#5. Asset Tokenization Services (ATS) 

This is a bridge that connects assets that cannot be exchanged via Loopring. ATS is run by centralized companies that have been vetted by the Loopring team. 

Why Loopring? 

The Loopring team argues for a case of security, scalability, and low costs as to why users should adopt it. According to the website, the Loopring network is: 

  • Secure – Loopring is an open-source and decentralized exchange protocol – meaning users do not have to trust each other. It’s also noncustodial, meaning users have complete control over their money.
  • High throughput – Loopring can support highly scalable DEXs by processing massive volumes of orders off-chain. The problems of the underlying blockchain network are no longer a concern.
  • Low cost – Since the majority of operations are conducted off-chain, gas fees are dramatically reduced.

Key Metrics of Loopring 

As of Oct 10, 2020, the Loopring token traded at $0.207983, with a market cap of $237,920,359 and a market rank of #59. The 24-hour volume of the token was $79,890,576, while it had a circulating and total supply of 1,143,941,524 and 1,374,513,897, respectively. The atoken has an all-time high of $2.59 (Jan 09, 2018), and an all-time low was $0.019861 (Dec 18, 2019). 

Where to Buy and Store LRC

LRC is currently listed on a handful of exchanges. You’ll find the token on Coinbase Pro, Binance, Bilaxy, OKEx, MXC, HBTC, BitHumb, Coinsbit, Hoo, Bitvavo, ProBit Exchange, Gate.io, Huobi Global, Folgory, KuCoin, 1inch Exchange, and of course the Loopring exchange. 

Closing Thoughts 

Loopring distinguishes itself from other exchanges, both centralized and decentralized – by not being a competitor but bringing them together. If the network succeeds, it has the potential to increase liquidity across markets and help push cryptocurrency closer to the mainstream.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

BitFi Wallet Review: Is BitFi The Ford Knox Of Hardware Wallets?

BitFi is a smartphone-like hardware wallet designed and developed by John McAfee – the techpreneur behind McAfee Antivirus software. It is a highly intuitive crypto vault that integrates both industry standard and some innovative operational and security features. For instance, unlike most software and hardware crypto wallets that have a backup seed and store private keys offline, BitFi doesn’t provide you with a recovery seed, and neither does it integrate the cold storage feature.

BitFi Crypto hardware wallet

BitFi is a smartphone-like hardware wallet designed and developed by John McAfee – the techpreneur behind McAfee Antivirus software. It is a highly intuitive crypto vault that integrates both industry standard and some innovative operational and security features. For instance, unlike most software and hardware crypto wallets that have a backup seed and store private keys offline, BitFi doesn’t provide you with a recovery seed, and neither does it integrate the cold storage feature.

BitFi is a smartphone-like hardware wallet designed and developed by John McAfee – the techpreneur behind McAfee Antivirus software. It is a highly intuitive crypto vault that integrates both industry standard and some innovative operational and security features. For instance, unlike most software and hardware crypto wallets that have a backup seed and store private keys offline, BitFi doesn’t provide you with a recovery seed, and neither does it integrate the cold storage feature.

BitFi became hugely popular because of McAfee’s bold claim that the wallet is “unhackable” and even referring to it as the ‘Fort Knox’ of crypto hardware wallets. A security audit of its source code, however, revealed numerous bugs and vulnerabilities. The wallet was then hacked. This saw McAfee drop the ”Unhackable” tab, agree that no wallet or computer system is unhackable, and defend BitFi by arguing that it was all a marketing stunt.

In this BitFi hardware wallet review, we outline and explain all the security and operational features that first convinced John McAfee that this Crypto vault is unhackable. We will also vet its ease of use, its pros, and cons, and provide you with a step by step guide on how to activate and use BitFi.

Key features

Large screen: BitFi hardware resembles an ordinary smartphone and has a full OLED screen. The on-device screen is large enough to fit the entire wallet address and plays a crucial role in making BitFi as intuitive as possible.

Native interface: You don’t need to download a desktop or mobile app wallet companion for the BitFi hardware wallet. The hardware device features a native user interface that you can use to navigate and interact with the wallet and your private keys.

Multi-wallet hardware vault: BitFi is a multi-wallet hardware vault because there is no limit to the number of wallet addresses you can hold on the device.

Security features

Passcode + SALT: Like any other wallet, BitFi requires you to set up a 6-digit passcode to protect your BitFi account. But unlike any other wallet, it requires you to create “SALT,” a passphrase that you will need to login to the BitFi hardware device.

Open sourced: BitFi is a fully open-sourced hardware wallet whose source code is available on both the official BitFi wallet website and its GitHub page.

Secret phrase: In the place of the near-traditional recovery/backup seed generated by most hardware/software wallets, BitFi lets you create a secret phrase that you can use alongside ‘SALT’ to calculate your private keys.

No storing private keys: Though it is a hardware wallet, BitFi doesn’t store your private keys in cold offline storage. Instead, it uses Salt and your secret phrase to calculate your crypto wallet balances every time you log in. This technically means that you can log in and access your digital portfolio using any hardware BitFi device.

Locked Bootloader: BitFi derives its claim of tamper-proof hardware wallets from the fact that it has a locked bootloader. This means that BitFi’s firmware is locked and will not allow the injection of any foreign programs or instructions.

No counterfeits: BitFi official website claims that the hardware wallet cannot be counterfeited. This argument is based on the fact that the wallet’s firmware uses a specially packaged and unique fingerprint – the Trusted Execution Environment – that cannot be replicated.

How to set and activate the BitFi wallet

Step 1: Start by making your purchase of the Bitfi Knox crypto hardware wallet.

Step 2: Create a user account on Bitfi official website. This step requires you to create a password and verify your email address.

Step 3: After email confirmation, the website will ask for the 6-digit code on your hardware wallet

Step 4:  It will now require you to create a SALT. Think of it as a username that should be unique but easy to remember

Step 5: Create the secret phrase of a minimum of 7 words if they are multi-character or 9words with no special characters. However, you are free to push this to 10, 12, or even 15 words for improved security. You can use the BitFi randomizing system by rolling the dice that accompanies the hardware device and their online word list.

Step 6: Turn on BitFi hardware wallet and connect to the same Wi-Fi as the computer or phone you are using to create a user account.

Step 7: Hit the Sync button on the online wallet user dashboard to connect the website account with the hardware device

Step 8: Enter the SALT and secret phrase to login to the hardware device and access your wallet address and QR code.

Step 9:  Your Bitfi wallet is now active and ready for use

How to add/receive crypto into your BitFi wallet

Step 1: Log in to your Bitfie wallet

Step 2: Copy the wallet address and send it to the person sending you cryptos or have them scan your wallet’s QR code.

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

How to send crypto from your BitFi wallet

Step 1: Log in to your BitFi online wallet and hit the send button on the user dashboard.

Step 2: Select the coin or crypto asset you want to send

Step 3: Enter the recipient’s wallet address and the number of cryptos you want them to receive

Step 4: Log in to your Bitfi hardware wallet and synchronize it with the online user dashboard.

Step 5: Confirm that the transaction details and correct and authorize the transfer via the hardware device.

BitFi wallet ease of use

Bitfi is a very intuitive and beginner-friendly hardware wallet. The setup process is relatively easy and straightforward. The fact that you can access your digital assets even on a (trusted) friend’s BitFi hardware wallet solidifies this ease of use claim.

Additionally, you don’t need to worry about losing/misplacing the paper/card that holds your recovery seed. You do not need it. You only need Salt and the easy to remember Secret phrase to access your digital assets.

BitFi wallet supported currencies.

BitFi is a multicurrency wallet that supports 12 cryptocurrencies and a host of ERC-20 tokens.

It is especially hailed as the first hardware wallet to support Monero crypto. Their official website also mentions that the development team is working towards incorporating more cryptos tokens in the near future.

BitFi wallet cost and fees

BitFi hardware wallet retails at $120.

The only other charge you might have to factor in when using the BitFi wallet is the transaction fee charged and collected by blockchain miners and network administrators to confirm and verify crypto transactions.

BitFi wallet customer support

BitFi has the technical and customer support team on standby 24/7 via phone, email, or live chat functionality on your hardware device.

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

Pros:

  • BitFi is an easy to use and beginner-friendly crypto hardware wallet.
  • The hardware wallet doesn’t store your private keys in a specific device.
  • It is a multi-wallet and multi-signature vault that you can share with family or friends with everyone creating wallet address-specific Salt and Security Phrase.
  • Your private keys never leave the wallet.

Cons:

  • It will only work if connected to the internet via Wi-Fi.
  • The $120 price tag is restrictive.
  • It doesn’t support anonymous user registration or trading.

Verdict: Is BitFi wallet safe?

Yes, Bitfi has embraced highly advanced security and privacy protocols that guarantee your private coins’ safety. For instance, their hardware wallet doesn’t hold any coins. Its specially designed firmware is also locked to eliminate counterfeiting and injection of malicious codes. And though its open-sourced nature helped many blockchain security experts uncover its vulnerabilities and soil its reputation as an ‘Unhackable’ wallet, it has helped identify many more bugs and their patches. Our only reservation with the use of the BitFi hardware wallet is its restrictive acquisition cost and the fact that it has already been hacked.

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Cryptocurrencies

What is Bella? Here’s All You Need to Know

It’s safe to say the future of finance is DeFi. DeFi, short for decentralized finance, is not only the idea of a democratized finance system but one with new and bold propositions for users. Blockchain-based finance will phase out intermediaries and inject transparency and fairness into the system. 

It’s safe to say the future of finance is DeFi. DeFi, short for decentralized finance, is not only the idea of a democratized finance system but one with new and bold propositions for users. Blockchain-based finance will phase out intermediaries and inject transparency and fairness into the system. 

It’s safe to say the future of finance is DeFi. DeFi, short for decentralized finance, is not only the idea of a democratized finance system but one with new and bold propositions for users. Blockchain-based finance will phase out intermediaries and inject transparency and fairness into the system. 

Bella is one of the projects in the middle of the DeFi action. It provides an array of DeFi products to benefit users and push DeFi into the mainstream. 

The Bella team believes “users deserve much better mobile products with elegant design and smooth user experience.” It aims to avail crypto to mobile – the gadgets we most interact with – like never before. 

Bella stands out as the first DeFi project hosted by Binance’s Launchpool platform – an initiative by the world’s largest crypto exchange to actualize the DeFi concept to Binance users. 

Breaking Down Bella

Bella Protocol is a suite of DeFi products such as yield farming, automated lending, one-click savings, a robot advisor, and more. The Bella team wants to make crypto investment more accessible for everyone with the aid of automated smart contracts and the security of the blockchain. 

The Bella team wants to correct the current situation in which users are barred from entering DeFi by high gas fees, slow speeds, and poor user experiences. On Bella, users can simply deposit crypto and gain back high returns. 

The Bella team comprises blockchain veterans with years of experience in finance, cryptography, and engineering. Bella has been imagined by the same team behind the ARPA project. 

Motivation Behind the Bella Protocol

The Bella team wants to address certain pain points that encumber the DeFi space right now. Thus, Bella protocol development is guided by the following: 

  • DeFi is a trillion-dollar market whose rise is much due to stablecoins
  • Despite all the hype and buzz, just 1% of crypto users are actively engaged in DeFi.
  • DeFi users still have to grapple with things like high gas fees, poor user experience, and the complexity of smart contracts. 
  • DeFi users are highly motivated by the promise of high yields through liquidity mining.
  • There’s a need for interoperability across various DeFi platforms for the best user experience.
  • The mobile phone will be the next big thing in both DeFi and CeFi (centralized finance)

Planned Products

#1. Liquidity mining: Users can stake in a variety of crypto tokens and gain BEL rewards. Currently, you can stake in Curve ARPA/USDC, BEL/USDC Liquidity Provider tokens.

#2. Flex savings: Bella supports optimized arbitrage yield farming strategies for both stablecoins and cryptocurrencies.

#3. One-Click Asset Deployment.

#4. Bella supports a smart portal for deploying popular DeFi products with minimal gas fees. 

#5. Lending: Bella supports flexible, secure, decentralized money markets where users can earn yields from staking, earn referral bonuses, and more.

#6. Robo-advisor 

This tool generates customized user risk profiles of indexes, stablecoins, and other crypto assets.

Main Features of Bella Protocol

#1. Automation

Bella plays heavily into automation. It enables a one-click investment process, where you can “sit back and watch your assets grow” while the code does all the work.

#2. Very Minimal to Zero Gas Fees

The Bella team believes everyone should have access to premium financial services. As such, you’ll encounter very minimal to zero gas fees while interacting with the platform.

#3. Best Yield 

Bella wants the particles to be a route for some of the best competitive returns in the market.

The BEL Token 

BEL is the native cryptocurrency of the Bella ecosystem, and it plays the following roles: 

  • Fee Collection: Part of transaction and service revenue from the ecosystem will be channeled towards BEL token stakers, referral channels, operations, and the risk reserve (an insurance resolve of salts to composite uses in the event of security breaches)
  • Discounts: BEL token holders get to enjoy discounts on services. For example, if you use the robo advisor and pay in BEL, you pay less.
  • Staking: Users will be able to earn staking rewards when they hold BEL tokens 
  • Voting and governance: Holding BEL tokens will entitle users to make their voice heard on major decisions such as product upgrades, new releases, partnering products, and so on 

Distribution of BEL

BEL tokens were distributed this way:

  • Binance launchpad tokens: : 5%
  • Private sale: 6%
  • Public auction tokens: 2%
  • Ecosystem tokens 18%
  • Project reserve tokens: 4%
  • User growth tokens: 40% 
  • Staking rewards tokens: 10%
  • Team tokens: 15%

Bella Community Growth Strategies 

The Bella team plans to implement several strategies in a bid to expand its community growth in the coming months and years. Current strategies include: 

  • Carrying out token auctions
  • Carrying out token airdrops to ARPA token holders
  • Actively engaging the community on social media platforms.
  • Launching the liquidity rewards program

Future strategies include the following: 

  • Partnering with other DeFi lending protocols to push BEL usage 
  • Partnering with decentralized exchanges (DEXes) so they can list BEL.
  • Collaborating with other DeFi platforms for BEL to be accepted as part of incentivized staking pools
  • Launching the Flex Savings and One-Click Portal to push the referral program
  • Enabling Fiat gateways to cater to a wider user base 

Tokenomics of BEL

As of October 8, 2020, BEL is trading at $1.08, with a market cap of $15,648,898, which places it at #381 in the crypto market. The token has a 24-hour volume of $3,960,114, a circulating supply of 14,500,500, and a total and maximum supply of 100 million. BEL’s all-time high was $10.03 (Sep 15, 2020), while its all-time low was $1.20 (Oct 03, 2020). 

Buying and Storing BEL

Currently, BEL is listed in Binance, Binance.KR, MXC, and Bilaxy, BKEX, HotBit, BitAsset, and Fatbtc. You’ll find the token paired against either USDC, BTC, BNB, BUSD, USDT, and more. 

You can store BEL tokens in either of several great wallets, including Ledger, Trezor, Atomic Wallet, Trust, and more. 

Closing Thoughts 

Bella is a DeFi lending protocol that seeks to differentiate itself by offering services for very little to no fees, a robo advisor to help users make the best out of their portfolio, and by targeting mobile users. And while other DeFi projects seek to avoid the CeFi space as much as possible, Bella works with it to provide a hybrid experience to users. Will these factors propel the protocol ahead or not? That remains to be seen. 

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Crypto Videos

RUON AI Digital Currency – Crypto In Space!

https://youtu.be/yZackwhJNfw

https://youtu.be/yZackwhJNfw

RUON AI digital currency certainly isn’t lost in space

 

Thank you for joining this Forex Academy educational video. In this session, we will be looking at the RUON AI digital coin and how the concept is helping people in need all over the planet.

SovereignSky, RUON AI, and Sovereignaid bring together space-based technology and blockchain in an AI app, which provides banking, chat in a social mobile application that will allow RUON AI to help disadvantaged people from all over the world; the aim is to eradicate extreme world poverty.

The concept is to run the technology from space, which really does take decentralized finance to a new level. Two microsatellites were launched from Vandenberg Air Force base on December 3rd, 2018, by Space Quest, their satellite strategic partner.

One of the principles is Tim Burke. Tim is a movie producer and has a love of Si-fi, so he is bringing his love for this into the real world. Tim used to be a producer on MTV and personally interviewed more A list of celebrities than anyone else. He counts many of them as his friends.

So, what is it? 

RUON AI is pronounced Are You On, and is a social app which is available on Android and IOS and received $20M Round A closing investment and expects to launch in Q4 2020 and are planning an IPO in 3 years.

It allows users to post on certain social media platforms using patented technology and where the user is paid in RUON coins. Users can also get paid in this way by selling products on social media hubs such as TikTok and Instagram, plus Amazon and Alibaba. The money can then be spent via a RUON debit card. Users get the option to divert a portion of their income to charity, and where they claim that at least 97% of that will go directly to the people who need it.

RUON AI has partnered with RUONwallet,  Open Transactions, and Zapple to provide a crypto-friendly bank with sort code connected smart card allowing users to spend Fiat currency digital assets and cryptocurrencies wherever MasterCard is accepted.

The Social Media platform is designed to make money for users while offering full privacy, encryption, transparency, and control over users’ data. RUON AI gives its users the choice to earn revenue using data points and splits the revenue 60/40 in favor of the user.
In December 2018, Sovereignsky launched the first of eight satellites to provide Wi-Fi connectivity to the third world. In December 2019, it was one of the first companies to successfully process a blockchain transaction in space for its mission to eradicate extreme poverty.

Other Partners in the venture include Stan Larimer, founder of Bitshares, Larry Castro founder and CEO of Stealthgrid, who has an awful lot of experience in quantum cyber security Technologies, JC Oliver, and Michael Taggart.

We look forward to bringing you more details about this exciting new digital coin in the future.

Categories
Crypto Videos

WARNING! Crypto Exchanges Are NOT Safe!

https://youtu.be/W1KslwpA2Gk

https://youtu.be/W1KslwpA2Gk

WARNING: Crypto Exchanges Are NOT Safe!

 

More than half of all the crypto exchanges worldwide have weak or even no KYC identification protocols — with exchanges in Europe, the US, and the UK being some of the worst offenders, according to a new study done by blockchain analysis firm CipherTrace.
CipherTrace conducted an analysis on more than 800 decentralized, centralized, as well as automated market maker exchanges, and concluded that 56% of them did not follow KYC guidelines at all, despite the anti-money laundering regulations. The highest number of exchanges that don’t adhere to the regulations are in Europe — a region known for stricter regulations. Also, 60% of European Virtual Asset Service Providers do not have sufficient KYC practices.

The US, UK, and Russia are the three countries that host the highest numbers of exchanges with weak KYC procedures. Singapore is also at the top of the list, both when it comes to weak and porous VASPs.


CipherTrace study also found that many exchanges do not even bother to mention the country of its origin on its website or in its terms and conditions. This lack of transparency appears to be deliberate, as 85% of these exchanges had a frail KYC procedure framework. This implies that some exchanges are purposefully hiding their jurisdictions to avoid registering or complying with any form of AML regulation.
The report notes that 70% of crypto exchanges registered in Seychelles have poor-to-none KYC norms, making the small island country a potential base for money launderers.

The study also examined 21 decentralized exchanges and found that a whopping 81% had either weak or no KYC practices. However, looking at the bright side, DEXs aren’t necessarily good venues for money laundering due to how they operate. CipherTrace noted that although $7.9 million of crypto stolen in the KuCoin hack was sold on the decentralized exchange Uniswap, it wasn’t actually laundered there.


Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson said that “The hacker isn’t using DEXs to hide their tracks, but rather so they can sell their stolen tokens.”
DeFi projects offer a variety of traditional financial activities such as lending, borrowing, and earning interest. This means they could fall under the same regulatory framework as banks and other regulated financial institutions.
“DEXs offer financial activities, and are, by doing so, likely subject to various laws already, including securities law, and potentially banking and lending laws, and most definitely AML laws,” said SEC Crypto Czar Valerie Szczepanik in early October.

Dave Jevans, CipherTrace’s CEO, said he didn’t believe that DeFi protocols would accept regulations easily, but that he doesn’t think that DeFi can escape regulations for long.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Crypto Going Mainstream In 2021 As Paypal Adopts Bitcoin – Go Get Your Lambo!

https://youtu.be/MaJVZ1Oe0eI

https://youtu.be/MaJVZ1Oe0eI

Crypto Going Mainstream in 2021 – MAJOR Adoption by PayPal and Venmo


PayPal has officially confirmed on Wednesday, October 22, that it is entering the cryptocurrency market. The payments provider giant, with over 346 million active accounts all around the world, has pledged to make cryptocurrency not only an optional feature but rather “a funding source for purchases at its 26 million merchants worldwide.” PayPal also plans to expand this service to its peer-to-peer payment app Venmo in the first half of 2021.

The public already knew that PayPal was planning on moving into crypto in June, but the information came from anonymous sources, and nothing was certain. A month later, the Paxos exchange had been selected to act as support in PayPal’s crypto endeavors.
In a blog post that came out on Wednesday, PayPal said that the current pandemic had made it clear that people need digital payments of all sorts.
Starting in early 2021, PayPal’s customers will be able to instantly convert one of the supported cryptocurrencies to fiat currency, with no added incremental fees, PayPal said. Merchants will have no additional fees or integrations as all transactions will not be settled in crypto but rather in fiat currency at their current PayPal rates.

“Cryptocurrency simply becomes another funding source in the PayPal digital wallet, adding more utility to cryptocurrency holders, while addressing concerns surrounding volatility, cost as well as the speed of cryptocurrency-based transactions,” PayPal announced.
PayPal will initially have a $10,000 weekly buying cap as well as a $50,000 limit per 12-month period. All trades must be executed in US dollars, PayPal stated.

Everything sounds good… But!

As bullish the Bitcoin market has proven to be about this news at the moment, an initial review of the crypto services PayPal offers has a couple of cons. First off, the company will take a go-slow mindset, which is the complete opposite of how the markets reacted to the most recent adoption news. Critical caps limit who the buyers are, how much they can actually buy, and what they can do with their PayPal- sourced crypto. While this is not necessarily bad, crypto enthusiasts should take everything slow and with a grain of salt rather than instantly calling for the moon and ordering their Lambos.

However, there is completely bad news, rather than just a slight setback. PayPal is refusing to hand its customers’ crypto keys over, meaning that you own the cryptocurrency you buy on PayPal. Still, just like on centralized exchanges, you will not be provided with a private key,” PayPal casts this restriction as a loss-prevention tactic.
Another bad thing is that the users will not be allowed to send their crypto around or even withdraw it. PayPal stated that “you can only hold the crypto that you buy on PayPal in your account. The cryptocurrency in your account cannot be sent to other accounts on PayPal or off it.” This brought a lot of questions on whether PayPal’s crypto feature will have “paper Bitcoin” or if it will be covered by real cryptocurrency.


However, PayPal’s partnership with Paxos should be good enough proof that the crypto held on the payment provider will be the real deal. The New York State Department of Financial Services announced that it had granted the “conditional BitLicense” to PayPal, the first of its kind. The BitLicense was granted for a partnership with the Paxos Trust Company, enabling PayPal customers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. Four DFS-approved digital assets that will be initially available are Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether, as well as Litecoin, according to the DFS statement.
The service rollout also faces quite a few real-world restrictions. Out of the 50 US states, only 49 have coverage at launch, as Hawaii is excluded from the list.


Conclusion

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies rallied following this announcement, which is just one of several major recent mainstream corporate adoption signs in 2020. The PayPal event happened following Microstrategy’s $425 million Bitcoin investment, as well as a similar but more modest move by Square.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin Gold Core Wallet Review: What Sets This Wallet Apart?

The Bitcoin Gold Core Wallet is a wallet that stores Bitcoin Gold coins. Bitcoin Gold –like Bitcoin Cash- is a fork of the original Bitcoin currency. It aims to fix one of Bitcoin’s flaws; the increasing centralization of Bitcoin’s mining industry. The original creators of Bitcoin wanted anyone to be able to mine with their personal computer and earn some extra cash from their spare computing cycles.

The Bitcoin Gold Core Wallet is a wallet that stores Bitcoin Gold coins. Bitcoin Gold –like Bitcoin Cash- is a fork of the original Bitcoin currency. It aims to fix one of Bitcoin’s flaws; the increasing centralization of Bitcoin’s mining industry. The original creators of Bitcoin wanted anyone to be able to mine with their personal computer and earn some extra cash from their spare computing cycles.

The Bitcoin Gold Core Wallet is a wallet that stores Bitcoin Gold coins. Bitcoin Gold –like Bitcoin Cash- is a fork of the original Bitcoin currency. It aims to fix one of Bitcoin’s flaws; the increasing centralization of Bitcoin’s mining industry. The original creators of Bitcoin wanted anyone to be able to mine with their personal computer and earn some extra cash from their spare computing cycles.

As Bitcoin’s value grew, however, miners adopted extremely efficient (and expensive) custom-built application-specific integrated circuit (ASCI) mining rigs. This made Bitcoin mining a highly specialized industry since consumer PCs could not (and still can’t) compete with these custom rigs. Bitcoin Gold solves this while, at the same time, builds on Bitcoin’s tried and tested systems.

Bitcoin Gold Core Wallet Key Features

Bitcoin Gold adopts most of Bitcoins’ underlying infrastructure. However, it utilizes the Equihash proof of work algorithm, which cannot be sped up by custom hardware. This eliminates the disproportionate advantage that such rigs confer to their owners. It also utilizes a per-block difficulty adjustment algorithm, replay protection, and the Bitcoin Gold core wallet, which is built on the Bitcoin core.

ASCI Resistant

On average, every ten minutes, a computer on the Bitcoin blockchain network adds a block to the end of the blockchain and gets a crypto reward for that. Miners compete for the privilege of getting to add a block, primarily because of that reward. They do this by racing to solve a mathematical problem. Because Bitcoin uses an SHA-256 hash-based algorithm, the most computing power entity stands the highest chance of adding a block to the chain.

Bitcoin Gold, however, uses the Equihash memory intensive algorithm. For this reason, it is much harder – if not impossible – to game the system by having powerful rigs at your disposal. This bodes well for Bitcoin Gold Core wallet users since to use the wallet, you need to download the whole Bitcoin ledger onto your computer, which allows you to mine with your spare cycles if you want to.

Full Bitcoin Node

As mentioned above, you cannot use the Bitcoin Gold core wallet as a standalone wallet. You need to download the full node during the initial setup process. Despite weighing in at hundreds of gigabytes, having the full node on your computer offers a number of advantages.

Firstly, you do not require having your transactions validated by a third party; you can verify them yourself.

Additionally, since the node relays and validates your transactions on the Bitcoin network, you can choose the priority you want your transactions to be given, and by extension, the fees charged for each transaction. Further, you can validate and verify other people’s transactions, earning some extra coin.

Hot Wallet

The Bitcoin Gold Core Wallet requires an internet connection. This means your funds are easily transferrable. The name ‘wallet’ is, to some degree, misleading since the Gold Core wallet doesn’t store funds in the same way a physical wallet does. In contrast, it allows you to change the records stored on the blockchain ledger- a copy of which you’ll need to have on your computer, as explained above.

Security and Privacy Features

Purely by being based on blockchain technology, the Gold Core wallet is a very secure crypto storage option for Bitcoin Gold currency holders. Its creators didn’t stop there, however. They’ve built upon the Bitcoin network, leveraging its strengths and security features. Additionally, the Bitcoin Gold Core wallet is based on the Bitcoin Core wallet, making it one of the safest wallets available.

Compatible with Tor

As you well know, the Bitcoin blockchain is a publicly available ledger. Anyone can keep a copy of it if they wish and analyze it for their various ends. This makes it very difficult to introduce falsified transactions since all the other computers in the network will cross-check and reject it. The disadvantage of this, however, is that anyone can trace your identity if they are determined.

The Tor network is an encrypted web communication protocol that ensures the privacy and anonymity of its users. It does this by leveraging a series of nodes (read servers) that mask your IP address and any inadvertently revealed personal data. The Bitcoin Gold core wallet leverages the Tor network, routing all your transactions and traffic through its transport layer, effectively hiding your original IP address.

Hierarchically Deterministic

Since Bitcoin Gold is derived from Bitcoin, it inherits the Hierarchical deterministic nature of the Bitcoin core wallet. This means that after you use your receiving address, a new one is generated for you. These addresses are your public keys, as you share them publicly with anyone who you’d like to send you money. As all these keys are governed by a single key pair, called the extended public key (xpub), previous addresses remain completely usable.

To access the funds from each of your public addresses, you need to use its corresponding private key. These private keys are also governed by a single key pair, called the extended private key (xpriv). The xpriv is effectively the one key that rules all the others, while the xpub is the one key that brings together your addresses and binds them to your wallet.

Open Source

Much like the Bitcoin core wallet, the Bitcoin Gold core wallet is open source. Anyone can audit, make suggestions, and contribute to its codebase. This means that security loopholes are caught and fixed faster than on proprietary software since more people are on the lookout for bugs. Additionally, all processes are transparent since changes have to be publicly declared and vetted before they are committed to the wallet’s main branch.

How to Set Up and Activate the Bitcoin Gold Core Wallet

Before setting up and opening a Bitcoin Gold core wallet account, you should consider a few things.

Available Disk Space

As has already been established, you cannot run the Gold core wallet as a standalone wallet application. You need to download the full Bitcoin node, which at the time of this writing, is around 200GB. However, you cannot only have 200 gigabytes of storage available since this node grows in size as the number of transactions increases.

The application files will also occupy some space, so it’s probably best to have a few terabytes of spare storage. Additionally, you should set aside a few USB sticks or hard drives to backup your wallet. It is recommended that you regularly back up your wallet on at least two external drives. Do this before upgrading your wallet and after a series of transactions.

Device Security

Due to the sensitive nature of the data this software will store on your computer, you need to ensure that your computer is completely free from malware. Install anti-virus/ anti-malware software and run a full scan. Fix any problems the software identifies before installing the Gold core wallet.

Additionally, make sure you scan all the USB sticks you use to back up the wallet and take care not to install software from shady sites, as some of this software may have masked its malware well enough to escape the anti-virus radar.

Regularly (and promptly) install software and operating system updates, as they usually include security patches.

Internet Connection

During the initial set-up, you will need to download the full bitcoin node. This will require you to have a very reliable internet connection, one that’s fairly fast and that doesn’t impose strict limits. After the initial download, you will then need to maintain a good internet connection since your node needs to communicate with other nodes on the network as transactions happen.

After appropriately set up your device, you can then follow the steps outlined below to open and activate a Bitcoin Gold core wallet account.

Download the Bitcoin Gold Core Wallet

You can get the Gold core wallet from the official Bitcoin Gold website. The software is available for Windows (64 and 32 bit, Vista and later), Mac OS (v10.1 or higher), Linux (64 and 32 bit), and ARM Linux (64 and 32 bit). Installation instructions might vary depending on your platform, but the process should be fairly straightforward.

Start the Software

Launch the wallet. This will begin the node download. Your internet and PC speed will influence the amount of time this process takes, but you’ll likely need to be a little patient as this huge-volume data transfer takes time. You won’t have to repeat this, however, as it’s a one-time download.

Set Your Password

Once the node has been fully downloaded, go to the wallet settings, hit ‘encrypt wallet,’ and set your password.

Backup Your Wallet and Private key(s)

After logging in to your account, go to the file section and hit ‘backup wallet.’ Select the destination (this could be a USB drive, external hard drive, a mobile phone, or a CD) where you want the backup to be saved. It is recommended that you backup your wallet on more than one drive. To back up your private keys, go to the help section, hit ‘debug window’ then ‘console.’ Copy the key and store it well.

Congratulations, your wallet is now ready to use.

Bitcoin Gold Core Wallet Customer Support

This wallet is open-source, so you can raise issues and even fix them yourself if you’re skilled enough. However, for non-techies, the customer service can be contacted through the Bitcoin Gold website or via their various social media channels.

Verdict

The Bitcoin Gold core wallet is a secure solution for Bitcoin Gold holders. It is especially suited for those who’d like to mine and earn some extra crypto, and for those who have enough space and bandwidth to run a full bitcoin node.

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Crypto Videos

Uniswap Monthly Volume Surpasses Coinbase!

https://youtu.be/FsGTiBku_-c

https://youtu.be/FsGTiBku_-c

Uniswap Monthly Volume Surpasses Coinbase; The DeFi Craze Continues


Data coming from Dune Analytics shows that Uniswap DEX has processed over $15.3 billion in volume in September only. In the same period, reports show that the centralized exchange giant Coinbase processed only $13.6 billion.

The significant spike in volume Uniswap had can be attributed to two major factors:
First, the explosive growth of the decentralized finance sector and yield farming of various governance tokens caused decentralized exchanges to thrive. Second, the launch of Uniswap’s own governance token has led to a frenzy on the platform.

The month of June marked the start of a DeFi governance token frenzy, with Compound’s COMP token being at the forefront of it. The process is relatively simple: DeFi users stake various cryptocurrencies and “farm” new governance tokens by doing that. The DeFi protocols that release the underlying governance tokens in a decentralized manner distribute them to the users who are staking funds. Once users successfully obtain the new tokens, they typically hold them until they are listed on a centralized exchange, where it could be easily sold.

Top cryptocurrency exchanges have to take various factors into consideration before listing tokens. The criteria for listing coins can include liquidity, developer activity, and track record. For new governance tokens and DeFi-related cryptocurrencies, it has proven to be a nearly impossible feat to meet those requirements.
Uniswap has, mostly for the aforementioned reasons, eventually evolved into the go-to platform when it comes to trading DeFi tokens, and the surge in total value locked in DeFi translated into intensified growth of Uniswap’s volume as well.

DEX Volume VS. Yield Farming

Uniswap’s volume has first surpassed Coinbase Pro in daily volume on August 30. Ever since then, it has continuously remained very competitive with the top US exchange. Uniswap creator Hayden Adams said in late August:
Wow, Uniswap’s daily trading volume is higher than Coinbase for the first time ever. Uniswap: $426M, Coinbase: $348M. It’s hard to express how crazy this is.” The consistently high performance coming from Uniswap occurred despite a very considerable slowdown in the yield farming craze. This suggests that, while the yield farming craze has been tamed, the uptrend of decentralized exchanges is sustainable over the long term.

The last couple of weeks brought a slight price drop of DeFi tokens, which also caused a drop in user activity in the yield farming space. The researchers at Dune Analytics are, however, not interpreting this as a bearish signal. Instead, they said:

“Despite the yield farming craze calming down, decentralized exchange volumes crushed old records in September, with $24 billion traded, up 100% from August. While the last few weeks were down when compared to the beginning of the month, all weeks in September were well-above the peak week from August.”

Ethereum analysts Anthony Sassano said that it also reflects the overwhelmingly positive sentiment that investors have for Ethereum. He said: “They told you that the decentralized exchanges on Ethereum were a fad – but they were so incredibly wrong. DEXs did $23.5 billion in volume in September alone! Betting against Ethereum has, is, and always will be a bad move.”

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Cryptocurrencies

What’s PerlinX (PERL) All About?

Following Blockchain’s birth, the financial landscape is changing very fast. Now we’re talking of decentralized finance (DeFi), synthetic assets, liquidity pools, and other concepts that simply didn’t exist before. And all these are to the benefit of millions of people across the globe who were previously excluded from the financial system. 

Following Blockchain’s birth, the financial landscape is changing very fast. Now we’re talking of decentralized finance (DeFi), synthetic assets, liquidity pools, and other concepts that simply didn’t exist before. And all these are to the benefit of millions of people across the globe who were previously excluded from the financial system. 

Following Blockchain’s birth, the financial landscape is changing very fast. Now we’re talking of decentralized finance (DeFi), synthetic assets, liquidity pools, and other concepts that simply didn’t exist before. And all these are to the benefit of millions of people across the globe who were previously excluded from the financial system. 

PerlinX is a DeFi project that wants to “democratize the trading of real-world assets through decentralized liquidity pools and synthetic asset generation.” 

It’s among the many DeFi projects that are recently catching on and providing unparalleled value to users. In the traditional finance system, you can put up your money to generate yield. And sure, it will, but meager yields which take forever to add up to anything substantial. 

With PerlinX, you can earn nice rewards for simply staking in the PERL token. Let’s dive into the protocol and see how it works. We’ll also see the platform’s major driver – the PERL token, and how exactly it keeps the ecosystem moving. 

Understanding PerlinX 

Perlin is a DeFi platform where users can create and trade assets through a synthetic liquidity pool. Perlin will initially be focusing on synthetic assets. Platform users will be able to stake PERL tokens and earn rewards. Rewards will be in the form of PERL, UMA, and BAL tokens. PerlinX will also utilize the UMA protocol for the generation of synthetic assets. 

On the PerlinX platform, each asset will have its own real-time price feed, supported by the Data Verification Mechanism (DVM) supported by UMA. The DVM is designed to provide accurate and incorruptible price feeds. 

Synthetic assets on PerlinX will begin with the prefix ‘px’, as in pxGold, pxETH, pxCarbon, and so on. Also, for users to create synthetic assets on PerlinX, they must first deposit PerlinX as collateral. For now, the PerlinX protocol will support five assets, namely TUSD, BUSD, USDC, BAL, and ETH. 

What Can You Do on PerlinX? 

Below is how you can interact with the PerlinX platform: 

#1. Deposit crypto and earn rewards 

Platform users can stake in PERL and earn incentives as a result. Staking provides liquidity to the platform for borrowers who pay back with interest. 

#2. Create synthetic assets 

Users can utilize the PerlinX platform to create network assets of any type. To create a synthetic asset, a user must first deposit PERL as collateral. 

Roadmap for PerlinX 

After enabling users to earn incentives for staking in PERL, the team plans to embark on the following steps immediately: 

  • Start minting pxTokens.
  • Identify potential security loopholes on the platform and fix them immediately.
  • Improve user experience to facilitate staking and things like liquidation procedures and settling disputes.
  • Come up with a long-term incentivization mechanism for liquidity providers and synthetic asset creators.

Future Roadmap

  • Work to narrow the gap between the existing financial system and DeFi, and rally for more support for digital assets and more emerging complex assets like regulated securities
  • Work to improve the underlying Automatic Market Maker and synthetic assets mining process to realize better efficiency.

The PERL Token

PERL is the native utility token of the PerlinX platform. It will play a central role in the running of the ecosystem – and the two key roles will include the following: 

  • As a staking mechanism to earn incentives 
  • As collateral to be able to create synthetic pxTokens

How PERL Tokens Were Distributed

The PerlinX team distributed PERL in the following fashion: 

  • Seed sale tokens: 20%
  • Strategic sale tokens: 19.49%
  • Private sale tokens: 8.36%
  • Public sale tokens: 8.38%
  • Team tokens: 15%
  • Advisors: 9.65%
  • Treasury tokens: 19.12%

Key Metrics of PERL

As of September 29, 2020, the PERL token traded for $0.026798, with a market cap of $12,947,152, which placed it at #436. PERL had a circulating supply of 483,139,908 and a total supply of 1, 033,200,000. The token’s all-time high was $0.132243 (Aug 26, 2019) and an all-time low of $0.010643 (March 28, 2020), per Coinmarketcap. 

Buying and Storing

Today, you’ll find PERL listed as a market pair of BTC, USDT, BNB, WETH, BUSD, PERL, TUSD, BTC, and BAL in either of these exchanges: Binance, Bilaxy, CoinDXC, HotBit, TOKOK, Balancer and Uniswap (V2). 

You can store PERL tokens in Ledger, Trezor, Trust, Atomic, and MyEtherWallet wallets. 

Closing Thoughts

PerlinX is one of the bold projects that we’re seeing emerging in the DeFi space. The more these projects are, the more choices for DeFi users.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

XZEN Hardware Wallet Review: Security, Fees, Ease of Use, Pros, And Cons

XZEN website describes its hardware wallet as a “Hybrid cybersecurity system” that “Combines hardware, software, and services” in guaranteeing maximum security, transparency, and the highest levels of user experience. It was designed and developed by an Estonian Virtual currency wallet and exchange services provider, XZEN EST Ltd, and launched in 2018. It is the native wallet for the XZEN exchange and features a mobile app companion that hosts such interactive services as the crypto exchange and payment service processor.

XZEN crypto hardware wallet

XZEN website describes its hardware wallet as a “Hybrid cybersecurity system” that “Combines hardware, software, and services” in guaranteeing maximum security, transparency, and the highest levels of user experience. It was designed and developed by an Estonian Virtual currency wallet and exchange services provider, XZEN EST Ltd, and launched in 2018. It is the native wallet for the XZEN exchange and features a mobile app companion that hosts such interactive services as the crypto exchange and payment service processor.

XZEN website describes its hardware wallet as a “Hybrid cybersecurity system” that “Combines hardware, software, and services” in guaranteeing maximum security, transparency, and the highest levels of user experience. It was designed and developed by an Estonian Virtual currency wallet and exchange services provider, XZEN EST Ltd, and launched in 2018. It is the native wallet for the XZEN exchange and features a mobile app companion that hosts such interactive services as the crypto exchange and payment service processor.

According to XZEN founder Dmitry Laptev, this highly innovative and versatile Crypto was born of the need to change the security architecture around hardware wallets. It is especially aimed at eliminating the chances of losing your digital assets because of a forgotten PIN or lost backup seed. It is also one of the few hardware wallets that support fiat currencies.

This review will be vetting the hardware wallet to determine if it is as secure and easy to use as advertised. We will outline its key operational and security features, provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to set up and use XZEN wallet, check the number of supported currencies, and compare it with other hardware wallets.

XZEN Wallet key features

On-device screen: XZEN hardware wallet features a 2.4-inch high-resolution LCD screen that is large enough to fit the entire wallet address.

Mobile compatibility: The hardware wallet has a mobile (Android/iOS) and desktop (Windows/macOS/Linux) app companions that host most of XZEN’s interactive features such as the crypto exchange and portfolio tracking tools.

Inbuilt exchange: XZEN hardware wallet users also interact with the XZEN decentralized exchange hosted on the mobile and desktop apps. The wallet is hybrid and supports both crypto-to-crypto as well as fiat-to-crypto exchanges. Also, it allows you to buy Crypto virtually via any credit/debit card.

Instant transfers: Cryptocurrency transfers on the XZEN platform are instantaneous. Moreover, transfers within the wallet’s ecosystem (from one XZEN wallet to another) do not attract additional charges or commissions.

Contactless payments: Embedded in the XZEN hardware wallet device is an NFC chip that powers contactless payments. It allows you to pay for goods and services in millions of stores worldwide without necessarily connecting your device to the store’s hardware. The chip is also attributed to one of the wallet’s coolest features – wireless charging.

Wireless connections: Just like you don’t need to physically connect an XZEN hardware device to a store’s systems to pay for goods, you also don’t need to connect it to your computer or mobile phone to transfer coins. It is fitted with the Bluetooth 4.2 technology used to communicate with its app companion via a highly secure and AES encrypted channel.

Steel case: The XZEN wallet components are protected by an airtight steel casing that is both dust and waterproof.

Security features

PIN Code + Touch ID: XZEN hardware wallet embraces a multilayered security feature that constitutes both a PIN Code and Touch ID.

Encrypted CPU: The hardware wallet will also feature a highly encrypted CPYU/secure element on which your private keys are stored.

Cold storage: XZEN hardware wallet maintains that the private keys for digital assets are always kept in a 100% offline device and never leave the wallet.

Two-factor authentication: All transfers out of your XZEN wallet must be subjected to two-factor authentication. While you can initiate the outbound transaction via the mobile or desktop app, it must be authorized by the hardware device.

Licensed: XZEN EST Limited is a licensed virtual currency wallet and exchange services provider, authorized and regulated by Estonia’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).

How to set and activate the XZEN wallet

Step 1: Start by ordering the XZEN hardware device from the XZEN wallet’s official website.

Step 2: Open the XZEN wallet official website. Click on the “APP” page. Download the wallet app that is compatible with your phone or computer.

Step 3: Install and launch the app.

Step 4: Choose a username and create a unique multi-character password for the wallet app.

Step 5: Turn on the XZEN hardware wallet and pair it to the phone app via Bluetooth or the USB cable.

Step 6: Once paired, the hardware wallet will request you to create a PIN code and set up the fingerprint ID.

Step 7: It will then provide you with a 12-word recovery seed

Step 8: The wallet will now generate a wallet address that you can use to add/receive funds

How to add/receive Crypto into your XZEN wallet

Step 1: Log into your XZEN crypto wallet app and click on the “Receive” button.

Step 2: Copy the wallet address or QR code provided and send them to the individual sending you coins.

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

How to send Crypto from your XZEN wallet

Step 1: Log in to your XZEN crypto wallet app and hit the “Send” icon.

Step 2: Select the cryptocurrency or token you wish to transfer, especially if you have multiple wallet addresses

Step 3: Enter the recipient address and amounts you want to send

Step 4: Turn on and login to XZEN hardware wallet.

Step 5: Connect the phone or computer to the hardware device via the cable or Bluetooth

Step 6: Confirm that the transaction details are correct and authorize the transaction.

XZEN wallet ease of use

XZEN has one of the most intuitive interfaces – for both the hardware device and the mobile/desktop apps. They are both clean and easy to navigate with little to no help. Several text and video guides throughout the XZEN wallet website can help you master your way around the device and apps. These come in handy in teaching you how to send or receive cryptos via XZEN and in figuring out your way around the crypto exchange.

These, plus the relatively easy and straightforward onboarding process, make XZEN wallet one of the most intuitive hardware wallets.

XZEN wallet supported currencies

XZEN is a multicurrency hardware wallet that is yet to embrace multiple cryptos and tokens. Currently, you can only host Bitcoins, Ethereum, and ERC-20 tokens on the wallet, but the XZEN website hints about an upcoming upgrade that incorporates more popular cryptos.

XZEN wallet cost and fees

XZEN hardware wallet costs $120.

Crypto exchanges within the decentralized exchange and crypto transfers to other XZEN wallets are free. Nevertheless, you will pay a variable network fee every time you send cryptos and tokens to external wallets and exchanges.

What are the pros and cons of using the XZEN Wallet?

Pros:

  • Crypto transfers from one XZEN wallet to another are free.
  • It integrates a hybrid exchange that allows you to pay for Crypto using a card.
  • Embraces a wide range of security and privacy features.
  • Supports anonymous user registration and trading.
  • Your private keys are held in offline cold storage and never leave the wallet.

Cons:

  • Supports a limited number of cryptocurrencies
  • Requires you to verify identity if you want to pay for Crypto via card

Comparing XZEN wallet with other hardware wallets

XZEN wallet vs. Ledger Nano S wallet

XZEN and Ledger Nano S are both multicurrency hardware wallets. Some of the key security measures they have both implemented include the generation of wallet addresses offline, cold storage for private keys, and two-factor authentication. They also have an on-device screen that one can use to check crypto balances while offline and verify transaction details for outbound transfers.

The two, however, have several operational differences. For instance, while XZEN will only support two major cryptocurrencies, Ledger Nano supports 1000+ cryptos and tokens. The on-device screen for the Ledger wallet is smaller than the large and high-resolution color screen on the XZEN hardware wallet. Moreover, XZEN can be more versatile as it is complemented by feature-rich mobile and desktop companion apps.

Verdict: Is XZEN wallet safe?

Yes. With fingerprint protection, offline cold storage, two-factor authentication, password-protected apps, and recovery seed in place, XZEN hardware wallet has put in place adequate security measures around your private keys. And in appreciation of XZEN wallet’s security-focused approach, storing and managing digital assets, the company was honored with the Excellence in Finance Award in 2019 during the global FiNext Conference in Singapore. Our only reservations with the hardware wallet are its relatively expensive price ($120) and its support for a limited number of coins.

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Crypto Videos

Crypto – Dash Is NOT A Privacy Coin!

https://youtu.be/zS9WRUoDnFM

https://youtu.be/zS9WRUoDnFM

Dash is NOT a privacy coin.

Dash was once viewed as one of the crypto sector’s top privacy-focused projects. However, it no longer operates under that classification, according to the Dash Core Group, the group overseeing Dash and its development.
When asked if Dash should be considered a privacy asset, Fernando Gutierrez, Dash Core Group’s CMO, said:
“No, Dash is a payment operator cryptocurrency, with a strong focus on usability, which includes speed, ease of use, cost, and user protection through optional privacy.”

Dash started off as a fork of Bitcoin all the way back in 2014. It was originally called XCoin, only to change its name to Darkcoin, and ultimately Dash. The asset positioned itself on the market as a privacy-focused asset and competed with the likes of Monero and Zcash. Its whitepaper even said that “Dash is the first privacy-centric cryptographic currency that is based on the work of Satoshi Nakamoto [the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin].”
In addition to Dash, there were two of the market’s other main anonymity-based assets, Monero and Zcash, which came to life in 2014 and 2016, respectively.

As can be concluded from Gutierrez’s comment, Dash is no longer fully and mainly focused on privacy, but it rather only specifies that it has privacy as an optional feature. The asset’s optional privacy feature is called PrivateSend, giving its users the option of greater anonymity than they would have when transacting without it. The technology that Dash utilizes in its PrivateSend function is called CoinJoin, a technology that “complicates” transactions to the point of being extremely difficult for analytics firms to analyze the transactions.

The CoinJoin approach was introduced in 2013, essentially letting Bitcoin users mix their transactions into a group of transactions, therefore making any form of tracking difficult. Dash took this exact same approach and made it more convenient by making it a built-in option for Dash senders.


In recent days, privacy coins have faced significant scrutiny from governing bodies all around the world, as seen by the IRS’ bounty rewards of $625,000 for successfully cracking Monero. In order to mitigate the possible pressure from the government bodies, Dash Core Group pivoted from the privacy coin sector to the transaction sector, now stating that the privacy regulation doesn’t apply or threaten Dash in any way. Gutierrez added that Dash’s blockchain is public and that there is nothing to break or crack because Dash’s approach to privacy is fully probabilistic, not based on encryption like on projects like Monero.

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Cryptocurrencies

What’s Wing (WING)? 

Blockchain opened the way for all kinds of imagination for finance. Thanks to the tech, we now have DeFi – short of decentralized finance – which is the idea that people can have total power and control over their financial lives. This contrasts with the current system where we lack autonomy over our own money, and we have to rely on centralized entities like banks to safeguard it. 

Blockchain opened the way for all kinds of imagination for finance. Thanks to the tech, we now have DeFi – short of decentralized finance – which is the idea that people can have total power and control over their financial lives. This contrasts with the current system where we lack autonomy over our own money, and we have to rely on centralized entities like banks to safeguard it. 

Blockchain opened the way for all kinds of imagination for finance. Thanks to the tech, we now have DeFi – short of decentralized finance – which is the idea that people can have total power and control over their financial lives. This contrasts with the current system where we lack autonomy over our own money, and we have to rely on centralized entities like banks to safeguard it. 

Of course, centralization means the banks can freeze our assets at will, in the case of real or imagined offenses against, say, the government. It also means if we’re sending money overseas, we have to rely on the long chain of approvals by third parties before it reaches the recipient. 

We’ve already said DeFi opens up so many opportunities for finance. One of these is the ability to loan cryptocurrency and reap big in returns. Another is the ability to lock down your crypto and earn rewards. 

Wing, a product by the team behind Ontology, is one of several DeFi projects that are emerging and offering users such revolutionary financial prospects. 

This article will delve deeper into the Wing platform, including the key highlights that distinguish it from similar protocols. We’ll also see how the WNG token is doing in the crypto market. 

Breaking Down Wing 

Wing is a blockchain-powered lending platform. The platform has a decentralized governance model designed to provide the maximum – and equal value to all participants, including borrowers, creditors, and guarantors. 

The WING team wants to support two types of lending: 

  • Over-collateralized lending – in which users deposit assets with at least 125% or higher than the borrowed assets 
  • Credit-based lending in which users who have an OScore can deposit assets with 80% or higher than that of the borrowed assets

Wing: Highlights 

#1. Flash Pool: this was the first Wing product, and it supports asset lending. Flash Pool also features an Insurance Pool to compensate lenders in the event of losses. Users can earn rewards through loaning, lending, or depositing crypto in the pool. It currently supports ONT, ETH, USDT, DAI, and wBTC.

#2. Credit-lending: Wing will support the IF Pool, a credit lending tool through which users with an OScore (credit-scoring system by Ontology) can deposit assets whose value is 80% or higher than that of the borrowed assets.

#3. Community proposals: Wing has a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) where network participants can submit and approve proposals for the growth of the community. Such proposals may include the adjustment of the interest rate, the introduction of new products, and the termination of existing products. 

At the time of writing, Wing has $243,429,803.26 assets deposited. That’s incredible for a project that was only launched in August this year. 

Wing: Vision 

Wing wants to position itself as a strong contender in the DeFi space. It intends to differentiate itself in the following ways: 

#1. New types of collateral: Wing plans to roll out various types of collateral, and with that, expand the digitalized collateral ecosystem 

#2. Decentralized credit: Wing will integrate the element of self-sovereign, decentralized credit scores so that users’ data can play a part in bringing financial value to them 

#3. Enlarge Wing’s decentralized autonomous organization (Wing DAO): Wing plans to create a DAO for financial services. Platform users are encouraged to put forward proposals towards the direction of such services. The WING community will have the power to determine critical issues like which products are launched, which ones should be canceled, which platforms to integrate with, and so on. 

Why Base Wing on Ontology? 

Wing is based on the Ontology network for two key reasons. 

First, there’s the need to support a wide variety of collateral types. Ontology is scalable enough to support a collateral pool of multiple digital assets from multiple blockchains via cross-chain support. The Ontology network has collaborated with the Poly Network for this end. 

Ontology also supports centralized and self-sovereign and identity and data protocols that enable the digitization and authentication of new and existing digital asset types. New collateral types could be either simple non-fungible tokens or more complicated ones, unlike real-world assets such as real estate. 

Second, there’s a need for the platform chain to be supported by decentralized and smart contracts-based credit evaluation.

Ontology features decentralized identity and decentralized data protocols that enable self-sovereign identity and the management of identity data. These two protocols can also support smart contracts-based credit evaluation. 

Additionally, Ontology has created a credit-scoring system known as OScore, which considers users’ crypto-owning info and their lending and borrowing history. Users have self-sovereign ownership of their data, and they can generate their OScore count safely and privately. 

Community Strategy

The WING team plans to undertake several actions to expand the community. These actions will include the following: 

  • Publishing DeFi related content to become an authoritative source of the subject.
  • Hosting and co-hosting DeFi and blockchain-related events.
  • Conducting Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions on popular blockchain and DeFi communities.
  • Collaborating with existing DeFi platforms.
  • Updating the community on developments every fortnight.
  • Actively engaging the community on various social media channels.

Future growth strategies include the following: 

  • Conducting referrals for mining pools.
  • Overseeing promotional campaigns for liquidity mining pools.
  • Engaging in collaborative marketing efforts with partners across various industries.

The WING Token

WING tokens are the native cryptocurrency of the Wing platform, and they’ll play the following roles in the ecosystem: 

  • Governance – WING token holders can take part in the project’s governance by voting for products, allocation of funds, upgrades, and governance proposals.
  • Interest discounts – Wing tokens are used as payment interest on the platform.
  • As insurance payment – Platform users use Wing tokens to purchase insurance contracts to increase their platform exposure.

Token Distribution 

The WING token distribution was done in the following manner:

  • Binance launchpool: 6.5%
  • Community incentives 68.5%. The community incentives are divided as follows: 50% to the lending pool, 40% for the borrowing pool, and 10% for the margin pool.
  • Ecosystem development: 25%

Key Metrics 

As of September 29, 2020, the WING token traded at $20.50 with a market cap of $5,124,447 that placed it at #653 in the market. It has a 24-hour volume of $5,124,447, and a circulating supply of 250,000 total supply of 2 million. It has an all-time high of $140.81 (Sep 16, 2020) and an all-time low of $14.42 (Sep 30, 2020). 

Where to Buy WING 

You can find WING tokens listed as a market pair with USDT, BTC, BNB, BUSD in Binance, OKEx, MXC, and Binance.KR. 

Since they’re based on the Ontology blockchain, WING tokens can be supported by any wallet that supports Ontology. Great choices include Ledger, OWallet, ONTO Wallet, Exodus, Guarda, O3, Cyano, and Cobo wallets. 

Final Thoughts

Wing is doing remarkably well for a product that is not a day older than 3 months. It joins other trailblazing projects in DeFi, and it will be interesting to watch how it grows and competes with already established ones. It’s also yet another brilliant project by the Ontology team. Is this the last of them, or should we expect more innovations in the future? Keep it here for updates.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Walahala Hardware Wallet Review: Is Walahala A Safe Hardware Wallet or Scam?

On the Walahala website, the hardware wallet is described as a next-generation crypto vault. A hardware crypto vault specially designed to give you more control over your digital assets by allowing you to carry all your cryptocurrencies and tokens in one sleek and smart wallet. This hardware wallet takes the shape, size, and weight of a regular credit/debit card but connects directly to your phone or computer via the USB port. It was developed by Walahala – a blockchain technology company – and introduced to the crypto world in late 2019.

Walahala hardware wallet

On the Walahala website, the hardware wallet is described as a next-generation crypto vault. A hardware crypto vault specially designed to give you more control over your digital assets by allowing you to carry all your cryptocurrencies and tokens in one sleek and smart wallet. This hardware wallet takes the shape, size, and weight of a regular credit/debit card but connects directly to your phone or computer via the USB port. It was developed by Walahala – a blockchain technology company – and introduced to the crypto world in late 2019.

On the Walahala website, the hardware wallet is described as a next-generation crypto vault. A hardware crypto vault specially designed to give you more control over your digital assets by allowing you to carry all your cryptocurrencies and tokens in one sleek and smart wallet. This hardware wallet takes the shape, size, and weight of a regular credit/debit card but connects directly to your phone or computer via the USB port. It was developed by Walahala – a blockchain technology company – and introduced to the crypto world in late 2019.

It features highly advanced operational and security features that its developers believe will be instrumental in making it one of the easiest to use and safest hardware wallets.

But how safe is the Walahala hardware wallet? Is it easy to use and as beginner-friendly as its developers want us to believe? How does it work, and how many coins and tokens and it support? We answer all these questions and tell you everything else you need to know in this Walahala hardware wallet review.

Walahala wallet key features

Compatible with software app: Unlike most other hardware wallets with on-device screens, Walahala hardware wallet uses a remote screen of the Walahala desktop or mobile app. Both apps are available for all the popular desktop and mobile apps and can be downloaded from the official walahala website.

Inbuilt exchange: Walahala wallet app features a live and ultra-fast decentralized crypto exchange. According to the Walahala website, this exchange can process over 1.5 million transactions per second. The exchange doubles up as a peer-to-peer network that facilitates faster and inexpensive crypto exchanges.

Portfolio tracker: The Walahala wallet app user dashboard has an “Overview” tab that lets you view and monitor your digital asset balances in real-time.

Exchange explorer: Walahala wallet claims to be the first hardware wallet to include the blockchain exchange explorer. This lets you monitor the crypto activity and trends for the different exchanges. Further, it uses Artificial Intelligent (AI)-powered order-matching algorithms to ensure that your buy or sell order is fulfilled at the most attractive market price.

Unlimited storage: There is no limit to the number of wallet addresses or private keys you can hold on your Walahala hardware wallet.

Plasma Core Technology: Walahala wallet has also embraced a blockchain technology similar to Bitcoin’s Lightning network – the Plasma Core Technology – to facilitate instantaneous transaction confirmation. According to the company’s website, the Plasma Core Engine is hosted in the “Quantum Space” and hence its ultrafast performance.

Security features

Password encryption: Your Walahala hardware wallet is secured with a password that doubles up as the wallet encryption tool. However, unlike other hardware wallets that only support alphanumeric passwords, Walahala allows its users to reinforce the password using the special characters when creating a passphrase.

2FA + questionnaire: Outbound transfers from the Walahala hardware wallet have to be subjected to two-factor authentication. You have the option of using the Google Authenticator app, a personalized questionnaire, or verifying your mobile number to receive OTP messages.

Recovery seed: Unlike most hardware and software wallets that provide you with the standard 12/24 recovery seed phrases, Walahala provides you with a 33-word recovery seed for added security.

No wire/wireless connection: The Walahala hardware wallet is immune to such threats as man-in-the-middle hacks as it connects directly to your phone or computer via the USB port and not via wired or wireless connections like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

Non-custodial: Walahala is a non-custodial wallet that stores your private keys and all other personal data 100% offline in the credit card like a hardware device. Your keys never leave the wallet.

Offline wallet address generation: The wallet is hierarchically deterministic. Moreover, all the sensitive wallet information like wallet addresses and mnemonic phrases are generated offline by the hardware wallet device and not its software/crypto app companion.

Key erasure protocol: The key erasure protocol for the Walahala Wallet is triggered after ten consecutive but unsuccessful login attempts. It erases all the data held in the hardware wallet and blocks the card.

How to set and activate the Walahala wallet

Step 1: After buying your Walahala hardware wallet, download the Walahala mobile or desktop app companion

Step 2: Chose a username and create a strong password for the wallet app.

Step 3: Connect the hardware device to your computer or phone

Step 4: Create a name for your hardware device

Step 5: Copy the 33-word recovery seed displayed on the wallet app

Step 6: Create a multi-character password for the hardware wallet

Step 7: The device is now active and ready to use

How to add/receive crypto into your Walahala wallet

Step 1: Log in to your Walahala wallet account and tap the “Receive” button on the dashboard.

Step 2: Copy the Walahala Wallet address or QR code and forward it to the party sending you altcoins.

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

How to send crypto from your Walahala wallet

Step 1: Log in to your Walahala wallet account and click on the “Send” button.

Step 2: If you have multiple wallet addresses, select the coin you want to transfer

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

Step 4: Connect the Walahala hardware device to the computer and log in.

Step 5: Confirm that the transaction details are correct and hit send.

Step 6: You will receive an OTP code on your preferred two-factor verification device.

Step 7: Verify the code and confirm the transaction.

Walahala wallet ease of use

Walahala hardware wallet is an easy to use and beginner-friendly all-in-one crypto platform. The hardware device is sleek and portable, while its software companions have highly intuitive user interfaces. These are clean, in that they only feature the most important aspects of the wallet and easily navigable.

The onboarding process is also quick and relatively straightforward. And so are the processes of sending and receiving crypto in and out of the wallet.

New users can also rely on the multiple videos and explanatory guides on the Walahala website to learn how to use and interact with the hardware wallet. Plus, they can also download the Demo trader account to learn their way around the Walahala crypto exchange.

Walahala wallet supported currencies.

Walahala is a multi-currency hardware wallet that supports a wide range of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Dash, Walahala Coin, and ERC-20 tokens. The developers have hinted at the possibility of incorporating more digital assets in upcoming wallet updates.

Walahala wallet cost and fees

Walahala hardware wallet retails at $149 (inclusive of free express shipping fees).

Additional costs include the fees charged by the Walahala exchange as well as the blockchain network fees charged by miners and administrators to verify a crypto transaction.

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

Pros:

  • Walahala embraces a number of highly advanced security features.
  • The wallet integrates a variety of highly effective operational features like the inbuilt exchange.
  • Walahala is highly intuitive and beginner-friendly
  • The Plasma Core Technology ensures Walahala has the fastest transaction processing speeds.

Cons:

  • The $149 price tag is quite restrictive.
  • Walahala is relatively new with no solid reputation.
  • The wallet demands KYC verification for 2FA and for using their exchange.

Comparing Walahala wallet with other Multicurrency hardware wallets

Walahala hardware wallet vs. Ledger Nano S

Walahala and Ledger Nano are both highly innovative hardware multi-currency wallets. They have also put in place highly effective security checks that include two-factor authentication and cold storage.

But while Walahala is relatively new and only supports a handful of cryptocurrencies and tokens, Ledger Nano S has a solid reputation of reliability and supports 1000+ cryptos and tokens. Walahala, however, outperforms Ledger Nano S when it comes to the effectiveness of the integrated operational features with their inbuilt exchange and support for the ultra-fast confirmation of crypto transactions.

Verdict: Is Walahala Wallet safe?

Yes, Walahala has embraced all the important security and privacy features. It helps safeguard the privacy of your crypto coins while the offline storage, password encryption, and direct connection to the computer protect your coins from falling into the wrong hands. Moreover, should you lose the wallet or it is compromised, you can always fall back to the 33-word recovery seed.

Our only reservation with this hardware wallet is the uncompetitive price for the hardware wallet, the fact that it is relatively new and with no reputation of reliability, and the negative criticism it has been receiving (and is yet to respond to) on different bitcoin and blockchain forums.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Beware of God Mode Admin Keys! Avoid Crypto’s That Have Room For Corruption!

https://youtu.be/AAD1MqMqPpM

https://youtu.be/AAD1MqMqPpM

Beware of the “God Mode” Admin Keys – What are DeFi Projects Even Thinking?


Review platform DeFi Watch shows that twelve out of fifteen of the most popular decentralized finance projects still have access to a ‘God Mode’ admin key. These full-access control keys allow developers to modify or replace anything in the smart contracts underpinning their projects, and even make adjustments to user balances.
While admin keys are a common thing early in the project’s life, they are defeating the concept of decentralization and rendering the whole project unsafe. While the “God Mode” keys have been justified as the way to protect users’ funds, and are mostly used with security features such as timelocks and multi-sigs, many analysts argue the validity of the claims.

Author and educator Andreas Antonopolous has defined a truly decentralized project as one that has no custodial control over the funds, adding that “This is a very important criterion. I think that’s the foundational criterion of decentralization.”
By that standard, most DeFi protocols fall well short. Out of the fifteen projects reviewed on DeFi Watch, only Uniswap, Makerdao, and InstaDapp have no admin keys associated with their product, while the remaining projects — which include Compound, Aave, DDEX, Nexus Mutual, Yearn Finance, and Synthetix — all have admin keys that allow varying degrees of control.
Aave’s admin key, which consists of just five members, only requires three of the five members to vote “yes” in order to make sweeping protocol changes. Aave, as the third among all DeFi projects by total value locked, should not allow such a form of centralization.
However, several projects, such as Compound, have implemented security features that protect the integrity of the admin keys, with many more projects planning to migrate to fully decentralized governance systems in the future.


While many users did state that Aave and other projects have been somewhat upfront about their admin keys, DeFi Watch founder Chris Blec said that DeFi protocols need to be completely explicit if they retain the option to possess the God Mode feature. He also added that even when projects acknowledge admin keys’ existence, only a few clearly outline the ramifications. As an example, while Aave claimed that they have the “God Mode” keys, nowhere does it say that ‘Aave can change your account balance.’
Synthetix smart contracts are, similar to Aave, fully upgradeable via the admin key, with the core team possessing the “vast power to do just about anything, including adjusting user balances and draining funds” – as DeFi watch stated. Despite Synthetix’s core team acknowledging the project’s centralization, the protocol has attracted immense funds and numerous investors.

Unlike Aave, Uniswap does not have any admin keys. Still, a blockchain analytics firm Glassnode has suggested that the DeFi project has essentially created their own unique backdoor through the distribution of their UNI governance token, which is equally as daunting.

The team potentially has immediate access to close to 40% of the entire supply, which is, at the moment, over double the amount held by the rest of Uniswap’s community. This would put them firmly in control of the whole decentralized protocol.
Once again, while having “God Mode” keys is somewhat a standard for new and emerging projects, it is expected for them to get rid of it or suffer the consequences of being deemed as a centralized project.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies Forex Fundamental Analysis

How Fundamental Factors Influence the Price of Cryptocurrencies

Investors believe in positive news and ignore the prohibitions of China and South Korea. On the eve of Segwit2x bitcoin for several days, it strengthened by more than 1000 US dollars and broke the level of 7000 dollars. Some believe that the exchange rate of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is growing thanks to speculative capital, on […]

Investors believe in positive news and ignore the prohibitions of China and South Korea. On the eve of Segwit2x bitcoin for several days, it strengthened by more than 1000 US dollars and broke the level of 7000 dollars. Some believe that the exchange rate of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is growing thanks to speculative capital, on […]

Investors believe in positive news and ignore the prohibitions of China and South Korea. On the eve of Segwit2x bitcoin for several days, it strengthened by more than 1000 US dollars and broke the level of 7000 dollars. Some believe that the exchange rate of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is growing thanks to speculative capital, on the contrary others believe in the future of blockchain. A number of countries are on the road to progress, and some countries, on the contrary, impose limitations, trying to take cryptocurrencies under fiscal control. Traders ignore limitations, preferring to react to positive news. How fundamental factors influence cryptocurrencies and why legislative restrictions are ineffective.

What’s a Cryptocurrency Afraid Of?

Before a new bitcoin fork, there are still 2 weeks left, but cryptocurrency already puts new records on growth speed and historic highs. In recent days alone BTC has appreciated by more than 20%, rising from the level of 5700 to the level of 7200, in a year the cryptocurrency has grown almost 900% and clearly will not stop there. So far, analysts’ most optimistic forecasts regarding the bitcoin rate are around US$10,000 by the end of the year. According to the website of Coin Market Cup, the capitalization of bitcoin passed the level of 120 billion US dollars and represent more than 60% of the total capitalization of all cryptocurrencies. Still, a month ago, all capitalization accounted for about 130 billion and the share of bitcoin in it was about 47%.

For some prudent investors, such a rapid growth of bitcoin causes some concerns.

BTC speculative growth is too fast compared to other cryptocurrencies and may persist after fork (demand grows only because there is the possibility of obtaining coins after Segwit2x). Some analysts compare the situation of the cryptocurrency market with the situation of 2000 (“Bubble point”). Volatility of 400-500 US dollars in a day is too much. With such a sharp increase you can expect a no less sharp setback.

There are increasing restrictions on transactions and mining by several countries. Fears related to the reduction of bitcoin after fork are in vain. After the appearance of ВСН in August the bitcoin exchange rate instead went up. A similar situation with Bitcoin Gold. Only on fork eve was there a slight setback, and then again growth.

Fears in vain in relation to the “Dotcom Bubble”. Supporters of cryptocurrency believe that behind blockchain technology, in the future, it has as an argument the interest of corporations in technology. The capitalization of cryptocurrencies is 200 billion US dollars, the capitalization of NASDAQ companies at the time of the collapse of March 10, 2000 was trillions, so it is inappropriate to establish an analogy between cryptocurrencies and NASDAQ. The biggest problem with restrictions by other countries is that they can become an obstacle for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

How bitcoin responds to state restrictions and whether we should worry about them.

On September 4, 2017, in the media it was reported that China had banned ICO (initial offer of cryptocurrency), leaving the possibility for individuals to continue any operation with the cryptocurrency. A year ago, China accounted for about 85% of all bitcoin transactions, but after a series of restrictive measures, its volume dropped to less than 15%. Traders to China’s decision reacted with indolence, quotes fell temporarily from the 4800 level to the 4200 level and close to reaching the August lows.

The most influential traders reacted to the interruption of the trading of Chinese cryptocurrency ВТСС on September 14-15. This, obviously, we can see in the graph. A similar situation occurred on July 25, when one of the world’s largest stock exchanges ВТС stopped working. Then bitcoin lost about 20% of its value. This indicates that traders react more to practical problems with trading and trading than to any restrictions.

With the tightening of the policy of the Chinese authorities, the volume of bitcoin trading moved to Japan and South Korea. South Korea assumed about 30% of the cryptocurrency trading volume, ranking third in this indicator. By the end of September, traders were expecting the next blow, the ICO ban in South Korea. Although the country remains loyal to bitcoin, a ban is imposed on the emergence of new cryptocurrencies, as well as on all types of loans in digital currencies. The decision of South Korea on September 29 was almost ignored by traders, the low bitcoin of 4% compared to the subsequent growth is not serious.

Where the most active traders saw the news that Japan would legalize the cryptocurrency exchange and show loyalty to control over cryptocurrency trading. In April, Japan became the first country to equate bitcoin with fiduciary money. Last week bitcoin grows exclusively pending the November fork.

It is not far behind the countries of Asia and Russia. On October 24, Vladimir Putin ordered the government and the Central Bank to establish the requirements for the organization of cryptocurrency mining, and in the future to organize the registration of mining subjects. Previously, the Central Bank had already considered the possibility of taking control of the issuance and circulation of cryptocurrency in the country. The cryptocurrency exchange rate did not react to this message.

The desire of some countries to limit cryptocurrencies (and bitcoin, which has some degree of status as a means of payment) is understandable:

-The trading volume of cryptocurrencies and mining volumes are growing every day. And this is a good sector for taxes. And if income from trading on the stock exchange or Forex is taxed, why not tax income from trading in cryptocurrencies and mining?

-The virtue of cryptocurrency is anonymity. Countries that restrict the volume of cryptocurrency trading argue that they are preventing the country from withdrawing money by circumventing regulators and can serve as a means for money laundering.

-A country’s currency is an instrument for regulating the economy. And even the trading volume of the foreign currency is under the control of the regulator. The uncontrolled circulation of cryptocurrencies can be a threat to the economic integrity of the country.

Many countries still do not know how to interpret the concept of cryptocurrency from a financial point of view. The views of the authorities were as follows:

Cryptocurrencies are completely prohibited in Iceland, Vietnam, Bolivia, Ecuador, Bangladesh, Lebanon, Thailand (between countries it is easy to establish a parallel in terms of economic development). In Finland and Belgium, bitcoin is considered a valuable asset, exempt from VAT.

The United States

Here, cryptocurrency is a full-fledged financial instrument (commodity) subject to tax law. Already more than a year there is talk of the creation of the first ETF fund of cryptocurrency, but so far there is no permission from regulators.

Canada

Canada is completely open to bitcoin. Taxation is applied depending on how bitcoin is used: for resale or as an investment.

  1. Opinions are divided here. Germany with respect to bitcoin is loyal, admitting it as a “personal monetary fund”. In France, on the contrary, bitcoin is criticized for its anonymity. In 2015, the EU court abolished VAT on bitcoin transactions, calling it a kind of traditional currency.

In Cyprus, cryptocurrency status has not yet been determined, and in Bulgaria cryptocurrency is subject to taxation.

Russia

Cryptocurrency in this country is prohibited as a payment system, but mining is thriving, especially in regions with low electricity prices.

Most developed countries have not yet decided on bitcoin status and are looking for the possibility of its legitimization. They have already accepted the inevitability of cryptocurrency and allow operations on their territory. Amazon promised to start accepting bitcoins in October, at the moment does not accept bitcoins Aliexpress, but this problem is already beginning to be solved thanks to the help of intermediary services that accept cryptocurrencies and pay goods in real currency.

And now I’ll come back to the subject of fear of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and what else they react to. It is easy to notice that traders ignore almost completely (or react in the short term) the decisions of countries, and vice versa, the price of cryptocurrencies grows at the time of reporting on new forks or agreements. Why traders ignore the prohibitions, it is easy to understand:

Regulators have almost no tools to limit cryptocurrency completely. Cloud services are on servers in different countries. It is almost impossible to ban mining or introduce a tax.

Cryptocurrency emission occurs in the global system. The lack of a single issuer (with the exception of private houses that create a cryptocurrency for personal purposes) does not permit the application of measures in relation to private natural persons.

While there is no unity between countries, the prohibition of cryptocurrency in one country automatically means the growth of its trading volume in another.

It is smarter to adapt to progressive technologies than to try to limit them.

The main key factors affecting cryptocurrency quotes are:

  • Innovations that make mining more profitable and simplistic.
  • Problems with cryptocurrency bags.

Bitcoin and ether in some cases have an inverse correlation with respect to other alts. Interest on a single alt may be the cause of the outflow of bitcoin money and vice versa, at the time of fundamental events (e.g., forks), the growth of bitcoin price is provided by the outflow of capital from other alts. The interest of traders with the project itself, which provides cryptocurrency. If the project is promising, then investors will react accordingly.

In the forums, you can find the opinion that volatility is related to algorithmic trading. It should be noted that analysts and themselves sometimes cannot accurately explain the reasons for the volatility of cryptocurrency, indicating a large speculative component and enormous popularity. In part, these are signs of a bubble, but maybe behind the cryptocurrency is really the future? And those who risk now, in the future will receive a huge benefit. In the near future, even bitcoin will not receive universal recognition, but within 5-10 years everything can change drastically.

While there are no serious fundamental factors that could deploy bitcoin in the opposite direction with a drop horizon of 25% or more. Traders prefer to hear positive news that can affect the reduction of commissions, the speed of transactions, the simplification of mining, and ignore all kinds of statements. That is probably the main difference between cryptocurrency and ordinary currencies, which are linked to speeches by representatives of the Fed, ECB, etc.

Categories
Blockchain and DLT Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin, Blockchain and Its Use in the Financial World

In this post, we will explain a new payment method and also a new way of making transfers that is simpler and safer than the SWIFT that is currently used. We are talking about Bitcoin and the Blockchain that have already been in use for several years, although it has not yet been generalized so […]

In this post, we will explain a new payment method and also a new way of making transfers that is simpler and safer than the SWIFT that is currently used. We are talking about Bitcoin and the Blockchain that have already been in use for several years, although it has not yet been generalized so […]

In this post, we will explain a new payment method and also a new way of making transfers that is simpler and safer than the SWIFT that is currently used. We are talking about Bitcoin and the Blockchain that have already been in use for several years, although it has not yet been generalized so that it can change our lives. Specialists say that both can have the effect that had Internet or mobile phones at the time, eventually, we’ll figure out if this prediction is fulfilled or not.

What is Bitcoin?

To know what the Blockchain is, we start with the definition of what Bitcoin is: it is the decentralized virtual currency that is traded through the internet. The key aspect is that issuer and receiver trade directly, without going through a bank or intermediary entity, so costs are reduced. They are currently used to buy any type of daily products; in addition, you can exchange bitcoins for real currencies.

Due to the complexity of the algorithm that uses Bitcoin cannot be falsified. Its founder Satoshi Nakamoto did it in such a way that the more people use it, the more complicated the algorithm is. Therefore, you do not need any competent authority to regulate Bitcoins.

To sum up, you can say that Bitcoin resembles cash, with similar characteristics. It also allows us to maintain control over the funds at all times because it is we who have them, not a bank or fund. And because it is done by digital means, it also highlights the immediacy it offers.

What is the Blockchain?

Also, we have the Blockchain that can resemble a public accounting book, a database, in which each block of information is connected to another block of information. In this kind of book where they write down all the movements that take place with bitcoin being in continuous growth. These annotations are inscribed in what is known as a block and are added in a linear and chronological manner. Therefore, in the blockchain, the information cannot be modified unless all the component parties agree.

The difference with other methods is that the information cannot be changed once recorded and cannot be erased. It is transparent because the transactions are public but at the same time are anonymous since the information contained in each block cannot be associated with any of the parties involved in the operation.

Mining in the Blockchain

As you are commenting above it works by blocks where all operations are packaged and have to be confirmed by mining. Mining is a mechanism with mathematical calculations that confirm all transactions safely. Some users may be miners and receive some remuneration for the work they are doing.

Mining is a mechanism in which a user puts their computer to work to create new blocks and authorize transactions and operations. You would have to run a software that connects to the P2P network of the currency that uses much of the processing power of the miner’s computer, thus obtaining a commission for the service performed.

The Blockchain Today

The appeal is that the transmission of data via the Blockchain is done by cryptography not by real data as SWIFT does. Recall that the latter is the acronym of the Society for World Interbank Financial Telecommunication, a company formed by banks mainly on which it relies on trust for carrying out transactions. The Blockchain is based on cryptography that makes it much safer, plus it is more economical.

As every new financial product has certain disadvantages, with the Blockchain there is some controversy as banks are likely to lose an important role in the financial world and that is to be intermediaries. On the other hand, as it is still in its infancy, usability is still reduced due to the number of users who use Bitcoin on a recurring basis. Security is an important issue as it may be exposed to attacks because it is open-source; there are many users who support its operation but at the same time can misuse the system.

The main global banks, of which Santander, BBVA, JP Morgan, ING, BNP Paribas are part of a group called R3 that develops applications with Blockchain technology. This new technology works like the Blockchain but with a private blockchain.

These financial giants want to transform the current banking structure by speeding up payments and stock market operations. We are working from three of the most powerful spotlights such as Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and the City.

The largest multinationals are adopting these new technologies; Citigroup is creating Citicoin, a digital currency of its own. Goldman Sachs funded a company that uses bitcoins to manage payments, called Circle Internet Financial. PwC states that around 300 startups are dedicated to improving the blockchain so that it can be used effectively and safely in the financial world. Therefore, its use is likely to spread widely in the coming years.

Startups and the Blockchain

Several startups were acquired by the main banks to develop their presence in the online world. BBVA acquired 29% of Atom to be a leader in online banking. The president of the second Spanish bank said that digitalisation is key today and that anyone who is not able to adapt to the current situation will be left behind.

Santander, in turn, created its own venture capital fund by investing $100 million in two years to catch up with competitors. iZettle will allow Santander to improve payments via mobile and táblet; on the other hand, Ripple that develops solutions for the Blockchain.

Currently, there are companies that are dedicated to developing products using Bitcoin. Blockstream develops Bitcoin for companies that use them. One of the novelties is the fact of performing simple operations in bitcoins that can be done more quickly with an even lower cost. Another startup is OpenBazaar that aims to compete with eBay. A decentralized buying and selling platform with lower costs than eBay currently has. A company that carries out the mining of which we have spoken is BitFury; carrying out the necessary mining for the correct functioning of the blockchain.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Are Cryptocurrencies the New Global Currency?

The irresistible exaggeration surrounding crypto-madness cannot be denied. The digital currency has seduced the imagination of investors, journalists, and the general public, and today, some even take for granted that he is a worthy pretender to the throne that is occupied by fiduciary money. So what are the chances of cryptos melting down fiduciary money […]

The irresistible exaggeration surrounding crypto-madness cannot be denied. The digital currency has seduced the imagination of investors, journalists, and the general public, and today, some even take for granted that he is a worthy pretender to the throne that is occupied by fiduciary money. So what are the chances of cryptos melting down fiduciary money […]

The irresistible exaggeration surrounding crypto-madness cannot be denied. The digital currency has seduced the imagination of investors, journalists, and the general public, and today, some even take for granted that he is a worthy pretender to the throne that is occupied by fiduciary money. So what are the chances of cryptos melting down fiduciary money to become the dominant currency system?

It has been almost 50 years since the world economy shifted from commodity-backed currencies to the fiduciary money system. Preoccupied with the waning economic influence of the UUSS and the increase in expenses of the Vietnam War, the president of that time, Richard Nixon, untied the dollar from America’s gold reserves and ended the Bretton Woods Agreement.

Crypto enthusiasts would have us believe that the stratospheric rise of different digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple sounds like a resounding death sentence for fiduciary money. It is argued that, after half a century of strict financial regulation by governments and central banks, it is time for people to regain full control of their money: a high objective that can be a reality if the digital currency finally becomes the economic status quo.

So what are the advantages offered by cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin fiduciary currencies? For starters, they’re very convenient. Cryptocurrencies have great potential and are able to save financial services and businesses a very important amount of money and time with the elimination of the intermediary from transactions; fees for these transactions tend to be significantly lower as well. And that is not all: a great the greatest criticism of the fiat system is that the value of a country’s currency can fluctuate much beyond national borders.

The Nigerian Naira is an excellent example of this: its value drops up to 30% at the time it is taken out of Nigeria. Cryptocurrencies, at least, for the most part, are not issued by any country and consequently are not subject to the same geography value variations.

Then there’s the best possible record and anonymity provided by the blockchain. A cryptographically safeguarded record of transactions in continuous growth, Blockchain was developed together with Bitcoin by its mysterious supposed creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

Blockchain is a good guarantee against fraud, as records cannot be modified once processed; it also allows for total decentralization, a feature of cryptocurrencies that is given more value than any other. Decentralization assumes that cryptos are not regulated by any financial or governmental authority and are therefore not subject to central bank policies and agendas. On the contrary, cryptocurrencies self-regulate through their own networks.

So far so good. But unfortunately for the legion of followers of cryptocurrencies, there is a lot of compelling reasons not to replace fiduciary money with digital currency. The main one is the current frenetic speculative enthusiasm driven by big-name currencies like Bitcoin and Ripple. It is too early to see whether the vertiginous highs achieved by Bitcoin at the end of 2017 constitute a real financial bubble, but there is no way to avoid the fact that BTC and cryptos, in general, enjoy an unprecedented level of exaggeration. Well, why don’t you? Cryptocurrencies are innovative, technological, and undeniably futuristic; qualities that make them irresistible to both the media and the general public. The problem with such an uproar is that it often leads to a ‘neglect’ of fundamental and practical concerns, which include:

Money laundering and decentralization: Anti-money laundering (AML) initiatives are a major concern of the financial services industry, as banks and businesses spend large amounts of money to ensure full compliance. If the digital coins were to replace fiat, the anonymity allowed by blockchain technology would make AML extremely difficult, costly, and slow. Many financial organizations and banks would be against adopting cryptograms for this reason. A similar problem arises from the highly acclaimed “decentralized” nature of digital currencies. Governments and financial authorities are unlikely to approve any currency over which they have no influence or control.

Security: While blockchain guarantees that cryptography transactions are recorded safely, the same security rarely applies to ‘coins’. Cryptos are vulnerable to piracy, power supply problems, software problems, and outdated human errors. Something as harmless as a cup of tea or a hard drive crash could result in the loss of millions of dollars in bitcoin. Too bad the investor who accidentally threw away a laptop containing 7,500 bitcoins and spends his days scouring the dumps (real story); losing his credit card does not make his account funds permanently inaccessible.

Scale: The market limit for the world’s various fiduciary currencies is approximately $81 billion. It could bring together all the cryptocurrencies in the world and combined market capitalization would not exceed $127.5 billion. Digital coins have a long way to go before the fiat system starts looking over its shoulder. The cost, time, and effort required to revise the trust system and replace it with a purely digital system is astronomical: national economies, businesses, financial institutions, and consumers would have to make a transition from the system they have used for almost half a century.

Ultimately, digital currencies are likely to become a sort of fiduciary money if they are to gain general acceptance. Financial institutions and governments are becoming aware of the proliferation of cryptocurrencies, and some, such as Sweden and Russia, are already in the process of development of their own altcoins. They seek to make the most of efficiency application of interest, the ease of taxation, and the cost savings offered by the digital currency, without security problems, money-laundering facilities, and the lack of central supervision. This means that cryptocurrencies with more future will surely persist in terms of financial institutions, central banks, and government agencies. Excuse the idealists: man strikes again!

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.” 

Argent crypto wallet app

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.” 

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.  

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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.

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.

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 Guides

Is Tezos The Most Robust Cryptocurrency?

Introduction

Introduction

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. 

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Crypto Videos

What Is DeFi Used For?

https://youtu.be/wpN4rjkfB4A

https://youtu.be/wpN4rjkfB4A

 

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 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. 

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. 

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. 

Categories
Crypto Guides

Understanding Crypto Trading Bots & The Pros/Cons of Using Them

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

Crypto trading bots are gaining popularity with rapid digitalization happening all across the globe. The automated trading programs built and designed for trading different cryptocurrencies are called trading bots. They have gained popularity because cryptocurrency trading has been expanding like never before.

Trading bots are very useful and can serve ample benefits because they are programmed to study and analyze complex data, including prices, market volume, trends, and trades. Also, a trading bot is employed 24*7, and the user will not have to worry about the holdings all the time. Crypto trading bots are generally used by users who do not have the physical time to analyze the market all the time. 

One should also remember that not all the cryptocurrency trading bots available in the markets are the same. There are only a few features that are found common in all of them. The crypto trading bots implement four aspects when they work i.e.

  • Backtesting
  • Strategy implementation
  • Execution
  • Job scheduler

Backtesting collects different market data, like slippage and fees, for analysis purposes. During strategy implementation, different strategies are implemented for generating returns. Execution allows users to test their ideas and strategies in real-time. Once the execution is done, then its time for the automation of the entire process and set-up a job scheduler.

Why can Crypto Trading Bots be the best decision? 

A Crypto trading bot brings a plethora of benefits to help a user. Apart from 24*7 monitoring of market data, these bots can analyze pre-defined criteria as well as complex metrics in a short period of time. A bot is responsible for conducting a lot of multi-tasking, but the best thing is that this multi-tasking is super-efficient. Another reason why crypto trading bots can be the best decision is the fact that they are immune to the emotional side of trading and human errors. Hence, a bot will never trade out of greed or disappointment. 

Why can Crypto Trading Bots be the worst decision? 

There are a lot of advantages that have been discussed until now, but sometimes, a crypto trading bot can become the worst decision of a user. To start with, they are extremely expensive. Hence, before choosing a crypto trading bot, it is necessary to conduct proper research and ensure that the bot they intend to use is reliable and profitable. There are a lot of developers who provide dodgy bots that cannot be trusted.

If a user is not experienced with trading in cryptocurrency, then it is not advisable to use a bot because it requires ace level skills to do configuration and monitoring. Also, if there is a failure to set stop-loss limits, then it can cause a lot of troubles for the inexperienced users. There are also some security concerns in the past associated with cryptocurrency trading bot. For example, Bitconnect has been labeled as one of the biggest cryptocurrency scams, and it was claimed that a trading bot was in use. 

Conclusion

Trading bots have different advantages as well as disadvantages. Going with a bot can either be your best decision or the worst decision. However, if a user has professional experience and expertise in configuration and monitoring, then he or she can use a trading bot to gain maximum benefits. Doing the proper research before selecting a bot is also important. 

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Crypto Videos

The Craze Behind DeFi – Explained!

https://youtu.be/VgFS4GWT5EA

https://youtu.be/VgFS4GWT5EA

 

The Craze Behind DeFi – Explained

There are many reasons that the DeFi sector has been experiencing a surge of interest lately.
First off, we need to mention that the regulators have been behind the curve in terms of DeFi, which has been able to flourish in this vacuum. As an example, in traditional unsecured lending, a legal requirement that lenders and borrowers know one another’s identities exists. On top of that, the lender always assesses the borrower’s ability to repay their debt. In DeFi, on the other hand, there are no such requirements. Instead, every part of the process is about mutual trust and preserving privacy.

Regulators always have to weigh the delicate balance between deterring innovation and failing to protect society from risks. In July, the US SEC made a major shift towards embracing decentralized finance by approving an Ethereum-based fund called Arca.
This is welcome and extremely important since one of the major challenges with financial innovation is the hostile environment that is created by archaic regulations. This had caused many cryptos and DeFi projects to fail, including major ones such as Basis, which returned $133 million to investors back in 2018 when it concluded that it couldn’t work within the SEC rules.


The second reason for the DeFi craze is that mainstream players are not-so-slowly and surely getting involved. Many financial institutions are beginning to accept DeFi, as well as seeking ways to participate. Seventy-five of the world’s biggest banks are now trialing blockchain technology to speed up their payment system as part of the Interbank Information Network, led by JP Morgan, Royal Bank of Canada, and ANZ. Even though most of these banks are testing centralized versions of blockchain, this is one step closer to DeFi than the current system.
Major asset management funds are starting to get interested in DeFi seriously as well, with the most prominent one being Grayscale, the world’s largest crypto investment fund.

The third reason for the craze is the effect of COVID-19. The pandemic has evidently driven global interest rates even lower, with some jurisdictions, such as the eurozone, now offering negative interest rates.
DeFi potentially offers much higher returns on investment to savers than high-street institutions. As an example, Compound has been offering an annualized interest rate of 6.75% for people that save with stablecoin Tether. Not only do you get the interest, but you also receive Comp tokens, which adds to the attraction of this offer. With as much as two-thirds of people without bank accounts having a smartphone, DeFi also has the potential to offer its services to the so-called unbanked.

One final reason for the surge in people putting money into DeFi projects is FOMO – fear of missing out. Many tokens are worth nothing or very close to nothing in terms of their utility, so we see a lot of irrational investment and pure speculation. But, people see certain tokens rise in value exponentially and want to turn their life around as well.
Like it or not, we are certainly heading towards a new financial system that will be more liberalized and decentralized than before, and DeFi will be at the forefront of these changes.

Categories
Crypto Videos

What Is DeFi – Beginners Edition!

https://youtu.be/_dtgkxL4lAg

https://youtu.be/_dtgkxL4lAg

 

What Is DeFi –Beginners Edition

One area in cryptocurrencies that have recently attracted huge attention is certainly DeFi or decentralized finance. DeFi refers to financial services using smart contracts, automated enforceable agreements that work without intermediaries like banks or lawyers. Instead, they use online blockchain technology.
Between September 2017 and now, the total value locked up in DeFi contracts managed to go from $2.1 million to over $7 billion. The hype it has gotten in the past couple of months has risen over $3 billion.

This has, in turn, driven a massive rise in the valuation of all the tradable tokens that are using DeFi smart contracts. The total market cap of DeFi projects now exceeds $15 billion, almost doubling the value it had in July. Numerous tokens have exploded in value this year. For example, Synthetix Network Token has increased its valuation by more than 20-fold, while Aave did an almost 200-fold increase. So if you had bought $1,000 worth of Aave tokens in August 2019, your position would now be worth nearly $200,000.

So why is DeFi so disruptive, and what does it bring to the table?

DeFi projects are mostly built on the Ethereum blockchain network. They are the next step in the financial technology revolution that began 11 years ago with Bitcoin. One area in which these decentralized applications have taken off is cryptocurrency trading on DEX’s (short for decentralized exchanges) such as Uniswap. These exchanges are entirely peer-to-peer, without any person, company, or other institution behind the platform.
Other DeFi services allow you to:
Borrow and lend cryptocurrencies in order to earn interest using platforms such as Aave or Compound Bet on the outcome of certain events using Augur Create and exchange real-world asset derivatives such as currencies or precious metals on platforms such as Synthetix.
Buy stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrencies that are pegged to the value of a particular currency or commodity.

DeFi is often called “Lego money” because you can stack decentralized applications together to maximize your returns. As an example, you could buy a stablecoin such as DAI and then lend it on the Compound platform to earn interest.
Though many of today’s decentralized applications are niche, future applications could have a massive impact on everyone’s day-to-day life. As an example, you will probably be able to purchase a house or a piece of land through a DeFi platform under a mortgage smart-contract whereby you repay the price over a certain number of years.

The deeds would be tokenized on a blockchain ledger as collateral, and they would shift to the lender automatically in the event of you defaulting on your repayments. Because no lawyers or banks would be required in the process, it could make the whole process of buying and selling houses cheaper, smoother, and easier.

To learn more on how DeFi works, check out our next video where we will talk about the current DeFi craze and how it came to be.

 

Categories
Blockchain and DLT

What Exactly is the Blockchain?

All cryptocurrencies operate using blockchain technology or Blockchain (BC). If you are considering a long-term investment in a cryptocurrency, we recommend that you first try to have basic knowledge about the blockchain technology, as well as about the technological platform on which your chosen cryptocurrency works. Even if you’re just poking around in short-term speculation […]

All cryptocurrencies operate using blockchain technology or Blockchain (BC). If you are considering a long-term investment in a cryptocurrency, we recommend that you first try to have basic knowledge about the blockchain technology, as well as about the technological platform on which your chosen cryptocurrency works. Even if you’re just poking around in short-term speculation […]

All cryptocurrencies operate using blockchain technology or Blockchain (BC). If you are considering a long-term investment in a cryptocurrency, we recommend that you first try to have basic knowledge about the blockchain technology, as well as about the technological platform on which your chosen cryptocurrency works. Even if you’re just poking around in short-term speculation or trade and not long-term investments, it’s an excellent idea to understand the basics of how blockchain technology works.

Blockchain’s technology is an encrypted, decentralized, peer-to-peer database. Its virtue lies in the fact that it is decentralized. For example, let us say that a stock exchange has a single database with all the owners of each share that is exchanged in it, and that is constantly updated. The entire database is stored in a single physical location: a server. What happens if the database is hacked, destroyed, or corrupted by a computer virus or a natural disaster? Of course, the database is likely to be at least backed up at another location, but it remains relatively vulnerable and can be easily manipulated.

Block strings, however, are decentralized databases “peer-to-peer” (Peer-to-Peer or P2P), where content files are divided, encrypt and store differentially on thousands of nodes around the world that communicate with each other to produce a seamless array. This makes fraud or piracy extremely difficult, as changes in transaction and ownership records must be agreed by a majority of all parts (blocks) to be valid. This is why cryptocurrency transactions take some time to process, as any changes to the Ledger or Ledger, which is publicly distributed, must be agreed upon and verified on all sides. This solves the problem of “double spending” which could naturally affect any digital currency. There is not a single central authority or server that can manipulate this.

Blockchain technology is considered a potentially “disruptive” technology, with the power to change the world. It has many potential applications and, if implemented, should replace the power of any central authority with rules that cannot be ignored: there will be a government, but a government where abuse, embezzlement, or bribery cannot be accommodated. There may be “forks” (forks), an issue that we will see a little later. They actually change the rules, but at least they are open and transparent to everyone.

Exciting Cryptocurrencies Why Should I Get Excited About Cryptocurrencies?

Cryptocurrencies, cryptodivisas, or simply cryptos (and blockchain technology in general) is new and has the potential to significantly change the way the world works economically. Early investors or speculators in new, successful, and disruptive technology can get spectacular returns, but not without risk. For example, $10,000 invested in Microsoft shares in 1986 would have been worth more than $3 million in 25 years. The same amount invested in Apple shares in 1980 would now be worth approximately 4 million. Then, in the medium to long term, even relatively small investments could yield significant sums that could change our lives.

Looking at a shorter time frame, the most important cryptocurrencies fluctuate dramatically in value, as they are subject to an enormous amount of speculative short-term interest. There has been considerable buying and selling by investors during 2017, maintaining high price volatility in cryptocurrency markets. It is statistically likely that, if a financial asset has gone up a lot, it will soon continue to rise or fall by a similar amount due to “clusters” or clusters of volatility. If today’s volatility is high, It’s also very likely to be bigger tomorrow. This means for sure that there is likely to be opportunities to speculate on cryptocurrencies during 2020, either by purchase or by sale.

At the beginning of this section, we have said that cryptocurrency is something new and potentially disturbing. The disturbing potential lies in the fact that cryptocurrency could completely replace national currencies, such as the euro and the dollar, as cornerstones of the global financial system. Central banks and governments have the capacity to devalue, thereby reducing our savings, eliminating their ability to act as a “reserve of value” and forcing us to become speculators until we are old. If cryptocurrency is safe and fully interchangeable, who wouldn’t rather save money on cryptocurrencies?

Politically, cryptodivisa is a libertarian and monetarist dream, so if you like those political philosophies, you’ll surely appreciate what cryptocurrencies can offer. If national governments cannot or do not want to stop cryptocurrencies, it seems likely that the global financial system will change back to something like the gold standard, which would probably eliminate the worst excesses of inflation and manipulation. However, many economists argue that the gold standard caused its own problems of excessive deflation, unnecessarily prolonging economic depressions.

You may have heard of the War on Cash, which refers to the growing shift away from cash to debit and credit cards, which has been promoted by many governments because restricting or replacing cash transactions makes life difficult for criminals and terrorists. Governments must also see another potential advantage: without cash, it will be easy to force negative interest rates on their populations, if they so desire, either openly (as in Switzerland and Japan now) or covertly, through bank charges. As cryptocurrency is truly private, its full acceptance should eliminate the concept of negative interest rates.

By now, you will probably understand why cryptocurrencies are highly controversial and why their widespread adoption as a means of change will face severe opposition from governments (as we see now in China). It is possible that governments try to take control of the dominant cryptocurrencies, or even create their own versions! Governments are likely to say that they need to maintain control over currencies in order to prevent tax evasion and crime, which, realistically, are valid concerns.

The best question remains whether governments will have the ability to stop or block the use of cryptocurrencies within their borders. If they can’t, then this is likely to be a large long-term investment. If the world’s governments can find how to block or restrict the use of cryptocurrencies, in that case, the investment potential, of course, decreases. 

Categories
Crypto Videos

Binance Is Entering the DeFi Space!

https://youtu.be/9-7jKU-5q3c

https://youtu.be/9-7jKU-5q3c

 

Binance Entering the DeFi Space

Crypto exchange giant Binance has announced that it will be delving deeper into the world of DeFi products with its latest offering, which is an automated market maker named Binance Liquid Swap.

Aimed directly at its competitor Uniswap, as well as at its clones, Binance will launch an AMM liquidity pool that will allow its users to provide liquidity by depositing tokens. Just like Uniswap, which is the world’s most popular decentralized exchange, newly-created Binance Liquid Swap will also enable users to earn interest as well as a cut of the trading fees for the pool.

Binance’s product is the first AMM pool on a centralized exchange, and will, as such, be integrated into the Binance.com exchange. This will allow users of the Binance platform to pool tokens in their wallets to earn rewards.

The AMM pool will use a pricing module instead of an order book so they could provide more stable prices as well as lower transaction fees according to the announcement Binance made. The company is currently prioritizing liquidity for its own tokens, which means that the first pools offered on launch will be BUSD/DAI, USDT/BUSD, and USDT/DAI.

Earnings from the AMM pool will be accrued with a corresponding seven-day annual percentage yield (APY for short) with returns converted into the assets in their respective pools. Transaction fees, as well as prices, will be determined by the number of assets gathered in the liquidity pools.


Binance CEO stated that the new product is aimed to attract more volume and participants. He said:

“We hope we can further the growth of the DeFi space and empower our users with more earning power and easy liquidity through a centralized AMM pool. The pool’s main characteristics are credibility, safety, and security, which are all provided by Binance,”

Uniswap is, at the moment, the world’s most popular token swapping protocol as well as a decentralized exchange, with more than $1.8 billion in liquidity.

Binance Liquid Swap is actually the second venture into DeFi that the company has made within a week. On Sept 1, the crypto exchange took aim at Ethereum by launching ‘Binance Smart Chain,’ a new Ethereum smart contract that is compatible with the existing Binance Chain.

The company stated that the blockchain was optimized for DeFi, with the goal of low-cost transaction fees that can go as low as 1 cent.

Categories
Crypto Guides

Is EOS A Better Investment Than Ethereum Right Now?

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

EOS and Ethereum both are popular blockchain smart contract platforms. To know whether EOS is a better investment or Ethereum, we will need to compare the two technologies by exploring basic concepts and comparing their mechanisms to draw out the necessary conclusions. After Ethereum was introduced in the crypto industry, two years later, EOS was launched and claimed to fix the flaws in Ethereum. EOS is a strong, scalable contender and might outperform Ethereum. The battle of EOS vs. Ethereum is the most interesting and happening space in the crypto industry. 

What is Ethereum?

Ethereum is a blockchain platform launched in 2015 by Vitalik Buterin. It allows users to send and receive funds independently without the assistance of any third party. It was the first blockchain project to install the smart technology contract. In this technology, some predefined conditions are applied, and users are needed to justify the conditions to proceed with transactions without the need for an intermediate body. This decentralized blockchain has its own cryptocurrency called Ether (ETH), which is tradable in most of the crypto exchanges. 

What is EOS?

EOS is a new blockchain platform that can also manage smart contracts. The Block.one company launched this project in 2017. It has created history by raising the highest Initial Coin Offering(ICO), worth more than $2.5 billion. It has its own EOS coin, which can be transferred from wallet to wallet. EOS aims to become the most scalable, cheapest, and fastest blockchain platform. 

Scalability

Presently Ethereum can support 15 transactions per second, whereas EOS can serve up to at least 10,000 transactions/second. EOS using IoT provides for inter-blockchain communication, which creates blockchains to allow more transactions. Ethereum is working on two protocols called “Plasma” and “Sharding” to increase transaction numbers per second. 

Transaction Cost

On Ethereum, users need to pay gas for each transaction, but EOS works completely in a different way. EOS blockchain users deposit their token to cover the bandwidth required for the transaction. 

Consensus Mechanism

Ethereum is based upon the proof-of-work model, and EOS follows the proof-of-stake model. The transactions are verified without the support of any intermediate system. Ethereum generates random puzzles at every node before confirming the transactions. These puzzles are so difficult to solve that you need to take the help of experts called “Miners.” While EOS offers to stake your coins to verify transactions, the stakers have a chance to earn the rewards. 

EOS Vs. Ethereum: Who holds the future?

Ethereum, just after Bitcoin, is the most popular cryptocurrency across the world. EOS, right from its initial days, is performing exceptionally well. EOS is yet to achieve growth that Ethereum has already achieved, but EOS is significantly better than Ethereum. EOS is a more user-friendly cryptocurrency than ETH. It’s still too early to think about how far EOS will go because the blockchain ecosystem is highly unpredictable. 

Conclusion 

EOS is younger than Ethereum and has improved scalability and transaction fees as compared to Ethereum, but still, it’s under so much controversy because of its more centralized layout. If Ethereum successfully implements the proof-of-stake mechanism, then EOS might not be able to outperform it. On the other hand, if Ethereum doesn’t reduce it’s transaction costs, then EOS will easily overtake Ethereum soon is what crypto experts believe. Cheers! 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Introducing TomoChain (TOMO)

Ethereum brought a ton of possibilities to the blockchain space. Before it, the world didn’t know that blockchain could be used for so much more than a digital currency platform. The Ethereum initiated support for decentralized applications (DApps) – a new kind of applications that are totally free of any kind of centralized control. This means users also have total control over their privacy and data. 

Ethereum brought a ton of possibilities to the blockchain space. Before it, the world didn’t know that blockchain could be used for so much more than a digital currency platform. The Ethereum initiated support for decentralized applications (DApps) – a new kind of applications that are totally free of any kind of centralized control. This means users also have total control over their privacy and data. 

Ethereum brought a ton of possibilities to the blockchain space. Before it, the world didn’t know that blockchain could be used for so much more than a digital currency platform. The Ethereum initiated support for decentralized applications (DApps) – a new kind of applications that are totally free of any kind of centralized control. This means users also have total control over their privacy and data. 

Thanks to DApps, totally unprecedented types of markets are now in play. From virtual real estate to the ability to breed cute virtual cats, we’re seeing the idea of games and making money pushed to new and exciting boundaries.

But as with any emerging technology, Ethereum faces serious scalability issues. No single event illustrates this better than the CryptoKitties saga, where the game grew so popular as to nearly bring the Ethereum network to its knees. 

Several solutions have emerged in the past few years to address this issue. Most of these are independent blockchain projects that want to support DApps in a far more scalable environment than Ethereum’s. 

One of these solutions is Singapore-based TomoChain. Launched in Dec 2018 and, TomoChain intends to tackle the problem of blockchain scalability. So, how is it different? What unique solution does it bring to the table? In this guide, we’ll answer those questions in a detailed version. We’ll also look at the platform’s native crypto: TOMO. 

Understanding TomoChain

TomoChain is a public blockchain ecosystem that aims to support the highest levels of privacy, usability, and speed for various projects. The TomoChain team wants to accomplish this while still adhering to the tenet of decentralization. To do this, they’ve deployed a Proof of Stake Voting (PoSV) consensus mechanism. 

TomoChain says their mission is “to accelerate the onboarding of millions of users by empowering today’s applications with technology that masks the friction of blockchain all the while retaining its underlying benefits.” 

To achieve this, TomoChain employs a variety of features, including: 

  • A PoSV Consensus: this is a consensus mechanism enabling fair voting, fast confirmation times, and rigorous security 
  • Double Validation: This involves confirming the authenticity of a block twice. When a masternode creates a block, another randomly selected masternode must verify it before it’s added to the blockchain.
  • TomoZ: A frictionless payment protocol through which users can pay for transaction fees
  • TomoZ: A highly-secure and decentralized crypto exchange protocol
  • TomoP: A privacy-oriented transaction protocol featuring an anonymizer and high transaction speeds

We’ll be looking at these features in more depth from here on out. 

TomoChain’s PoSV and Masternodes

The TomoChain network is maintained by 150 masternodes via the PoSV consensus. Masternodes are participants in the network who are chosen by token-holders to produce and confirm blocks. To become a master node, you need to stake at least $50,000 TOMO tokens. 

Each block creation period is known as epoch. Masternodes take every block through the double validation process. After every epoch, voters who voted in the participating masternodes are rewarded, as are the masternodes. 

Generally, for every block, the rewards are distributed as follows: 

  • 40% for masternodes
  • 50% to voters, with each voter’s reward based on how much contribution the masternode they voted for, has made for the last 900 block
  • 10% goes to the Masternode Foundation

Double Validation

TomoChain utilizes a double validation process to achieve an almost unassailable security level. When a block is produced by a masternode, it must be verified by one more masternode before it’s pushed to the blockchain. The second verifying master node is randomly selected from the pool of masternodes. 

The double validation mechanism enhances the security and stability of the TomoChain platform. It reduces the probability of hard forks, nothing-at-stake attacks, and ”garbage blocks”. 

Some Decentralized Apps by TomoChain

  • TomoMaster: this is a staking DApp that allows token-holders to vie to become a masternode, or to vote for such candidates. This is accomplished through the use of wallets such as TomoWallet, Ledger, MetaMask, and so on
  • TomoSwap: this is a decentralized exchange protocol integrating Kyber Network. With TomoSwap, users can seamlessly exchange assets among each other and various applications
  • TomoPool: this is a service that allows users to earn dividends on their staking yield
  • MaxBet: this is a decentralized, secure, and transparent gambling game 

What’s Tomo Token? 

TOMO is the native cryptocurrency of the TomoChain network. It was initially created as an ERC20 token before moving to the mainnet in Dec 2018. TOMO plays essential roles in the TomoChain ecosystem, for instance: 

  • As a reserve currency for DApps
  • As funding for the future development of the TomoChain protocol
  • As an incentivizing mechanism for developers to contribute to the ecosystem
  • As a governance mechanism of the network

TOMO was distributed in the following manner: 

  • 15.65% went to the seed sale
  • 31.45% went to the private sale
  • 4% went to the public sale
  • 15.9% went to the team and advisors
  • 16% went to the token treasury reserve
  • 17% went to the mining rewards reserve

Key Metrics of TOMO

As of September 3, 2020, TOMO traded at $0.813238, with a market cap of $58,396,765, a 24-hour volume of $10,737,756, a circulating supply of 71, 807, 725 and a total supply of 100 million. TOMO’s highest-ever and the lowest-ever price is $2.30 (April 29, 2018), and $0.140721 (March 13, 2020). 

How to Buy and Store TOMO

TOMO token can be purchased from a range of exchanges, including Binance, BitForex, MXC, KuCoin, TomoDEX, WazirX, VINEX Network, Gate.io, CoinDCX, Beaxy, BitAsset, FTX, ATOMARS, and more. 

TOMO tokens can be stored in any of these wallets: TomoWallet, Atomic Wallet, Coinomi Wallet, MetaMask, Trust Wallet, and industry favorites Ledger Nano and Trezor.

Final Thoughts

TomoChain brings new concepts to the blockchain space like PoSV consensus and double validation. These and more innovative protocols by the TomoChain team sets it apart from the sea of projects looking to best Ethereum. It remains to be seen whether the project can thrive in the ultra-competitive crypto and blockchain space.

Categories
Crypto Guides

What Should You Know About BitDegree & Its Usage?

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

Cryptocurrency projects mostly start with Initial Coin Offering (ICO). Through ICOs, companies in the cryptocurrency industry raise funds to launch new coins or services in the industry. The trio of Arnas Stuopelis, Andrius Putna, and Roberto Santana was previously serving web hosting company “Hostinger” presented BitDegree ICO to the world. This ICO managed to convince over 12 thousand contributors and raised 32 thousand ETH. In this system, students are offered with the study course and paid with a BitDegree token in return for studying. 

What is BitDegree?

BitDegree is the world’s first e-learning platform powered by Ethereum blockchain. The goal of BitDegree is to gamify the learning process with fun and rewards. Here, gamification in academics means students will be awarded cryptocurrency for completing any study course. Every academic activity performed by the student will be saved in their BDG account and can be accessed anytime and anywhere.

The BitDegree platform not only gives incentives but also provides study material for easy understanding. The official portal is available in English, Russian, and Portuguese language. Is there any other better platform for study, where you are paid with cryptocurrency tokens for studying? No, It’s only possible with the BitDegree platform.  

You can also earn tokens by referring BitDegree to your friends. At every level, you need to qualify an online test to enter the next stage, and qualifying students are rewarded with “BitDegree” tradable tokens. To offer merit students with employment opportunities, BitDegree recently collaborated with companies like Huffpost, Marketwatch, Mogul, etc. After you complete your studies, you can trade with the currency earned, or you can also ask for a cash-out.  

How to Use BitDegree?

BitDegree is a utility token, which means the holder can use it for payments but doesn’t have any voting rights in the company. All community members like teachers, learners, and employers work together and pay each other with BDG token for their efforts. BitDegree accounts can be operated on mobile and desktop as well. Almost all courses are free except for a few professional courses which are available at a subsidized fee. 

Some of the important highlights of the BitDegree portal are: 

  • Learners will be rewarded with tokens for course completion.
  • Learners will pay teachers and for courses via BDG tokens.
  • Donors and employers will issue a token to learners for specific courses.

The payment system is handled through a smart contract system. Once a specific task is completed automatically without any error or delay, the reward is delivered through a smart contract. In computer, conditions are entered in the code like:

IF John completes 6 lessons THEN send John 300 BDG Tokens

BitDegree is classified as an ERC-20 token, and you don’t need an ETH wallet to store your earned token as it will be stored in your BitDegree account itself. To earn from BDG, you can convert it to blockchain for cryptocurrency trading and get them stored in an Ethereum wallet. 

Conclusion

Bitdegree brought huge transparency to the education system and is the first e-learning platform integrated with blockchain technology. It has introduced innovations and developments in the landscape of education. BitDegree’s global education revolution is offering everyone a common platform to learn and share skills to grow together.

Categories
Crypto Guides

A Brief Introduction To SushiSwap – An Evolution DeFi Project of UniSwap

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

SushiSwap copied the mechanics of the most popular DeFi protocol known as “Uniswap” and challenged it, openly with new cryptocurrency trading features. We can consider SushiSwap as a Uniswap rivalry. The SUSHI token holders are provided with a share of the SushiSwap trading commission, and incentives are given to the liquidity providers.

It’s a community governed crypto trading platform as the SUSHI holders have the power to make governance decisions. SushiSwap made a strong strategy to give tough competition to Uniswap by paying temporarily extra-large SUSHI rewards to the first two-week liquidity providers. 

What is SushiSwap, and how does it work?

Before you start understanding SushiSwap, you must know about Uniswap. Uniswap is an exchange protocol of DeFi which executes operations without any order book. It follows a model known as automated market-making (AMM), where funds are released by liquidity providers in the pools. 

SushiSwap is a similar copy of Uniswap with few differences mainly – the SUSHI token. These tokens majorly have two functions at the time of launch: authorize the holder with administration rights, and a share of fees is paid to them from the protocol commission. In simple words, SUSHI token holders have “ownership” of the protocol. The community accepted SushiSwap at a large scale because tokens distributed by this provide liquidity incentives that grant the holders with governance rights. In addition, the SUSHI holders are also rewarded with a share of fees paid by traders in the protocol. 

With these governance rights, the token holders can vote for any suggested SushiSwap Improvement Proposal (PIP). Therefore, they play a great role in bringing any minor or major changes in the protocol. So, the whole development and execution process of SushiSwap depends on SUSHI holders, and for any successful token projects, a strong community is always a true asset. 

How are SUSHI rewards distributed?

‘Liquidity mining’ is the mode through which Sushi is distributed. SUSHI is given to those liquidity providers who specifically invest in 13 Uniswap pools. Later on, the Uniswap LP tokens can be deposited by such liquidity providers to SushiSwap staking contracts for earning SUSHI. 

Initially, the 13 Uniswap pools were as follows:

USDT-ETH, USDC-ETH, DAI-ETH, USD-ETH, COMP-ETH, LEND-ETH, SNX-ETH, UMA-ETH, 
LINK-ETH, BAND-ETH, AMPL-ETH, YFI-ETH, SUSHI-ETH
The SUSHI-ETH pool provides the investors with double rewards in return. According to the protocol, a new token will be punched each time a block is extracted on Ethereum’s network, and the distribution is initialized with Ethereum block 10,750,000. The target is to stamp out 100 new SUSHI tokens for each block, but for the starting 100000 blocks, 1000 SUSHI tokens will be created per block, and after that, the rewards will be reduced. This procedure is adopted to provide incentives to early investors in the protocol in order to encourage them for Liquidity Migration. 

Once 100000 Ethereum blocks are extracted and the tokens generated will be migrated for liquidity into the SushiSwap contract. In the process, all the Uniswap tokens staked on will be reclaimed to initialize a new pool of tokens. Once the liquidity migration is over to fuel the first SushiSwap pools, then immediate operations will be activated in the protocol. The investors, without any extra effort, will receive SUSHI token share for providing liquidity for further processing. 

Conclusion

SushiSwap challenged the current most successful DeFi protocol called Uniswap. This company is providing high returns to token holders and governance rights to its community. Irrespective of the SushiSwap’s success, it has proved that no protocol in DeFi is accurate.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

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

203 crypto wallet launched in 2015 as a mobile crypto app before its developers – 03 Labs – introduced the desktop version in 2018. It is built for the Ontology Network – a Neo Blockchain fork – that was previously grouped alongside NEP-5 crypto projects. It is specially designed to provide Neo platform users with a safe and easy to use platform where they can store, exchange, and monitor their crypto portfolio.

203 crypto wallet launched in 2015 as a mobile crypto app before its developers – 03 Labs – introduced the desktop version in 2018. It is built for the Ontology Network – a Neo Blockchain fork – that was previously grouped alongside NEP-5 crypto projects. It is specially designed to provide Neo platform users with a safe and easy to use platform where they can store, exchange, and monitor their crypto portfolio.

203 crypto wallet launched in 2015 as a mobile crypto app before its developers – 03 Labs – introduced the desktop version in 2018. It is built for the Ontology Network – a Neo Blockchain fork – that was previously grouped alongside NEP-5 crypto projects. It is specially designed to provide Neo platform users with a safe and easy to use platform where they can store, exchange, and monitor their crypto portfolio.

The 03 network website describes the 03 crypto wallet app as a “gateway to the smart economy” where you can “manage, exchange, stake, and buy” different cryptocurrencies. But how convenient is the 03 Wallet? How safe is the 03 mobile wallet app? This wallet review seeks to explore and detail all the 03 Wallet features to help determine the wallet’s safety and security level.

Key features:

Cross-platform wallet: 03 is a cross-platform wallet implying that it is available as both a mobile wallet for Android and iOS smartphones and a desktop app compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux. You can download the updated versions of either on the 03 network website or GitHub.

Voting and staking: By maintaining a significant number of Gas and NEO coins in your 03 Wallet, you can vote for the network delegates. Similarly, you can stake your coins held in the 03 Wallet and get to earn interest in the form of GAS tokens.

Multiple payments methods: 03 Wallet is also one of the few NEO and ONT network-linked wallets that allow for crypto purchases using credit cards. It is also one of the few wallets that allow you to buy Neo-affiliated tokens using such other cryptocurrencies as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.

Integrates a crypto marketplace: Though 03 Wallet does not have an inbuilt exchange, it integrates the Switcheo marketplace that allows for the exchange of cryptocoins and tokens at reasonable fees. The marketplace is highly intuitive and easy to use but requires you to transfer funds between the exchange and your wallet.

NEO newsfeed: The crypto wallet also integrates an updated NEO-blockchain news site. Here, you get the latest news and developments taking place within the Neo blockchain and ONT networks.

Portfolio monitoring: 03 further lets you partition your wallet and create hot and cold storage. This, plus the fact that you are able to monitor both wallet performances, plays a key role in helping you make sound financial decisions. It is also a security measure ensuring that even if a hacker were to gain access to your device, they cant breach your cold storage.

Security features:

Uses device password: Like most other app-based crypto vaults, 03 Wallet is secured with a password. But, unlike most other wallets, you don’t have to create a separate password for the wallet as it uses your device’s password.

Open source: 03 Wallet is created using open-source technology, which gives anybody a chance to view and audit its code. You can download this code on either the 03 network website or GitHub.

Hierarchically deterministic: The 03 Wallet app is also hierarchically deterministic and will auto-generate a new wallet address for every new transaction. This goes a long way in masking your real public address and throwing off would-be third-party crypto trackers.

Non-custodial: The 03 crypto wallet doesn’t store your private keys in the ONT or Neo network servers. Rather, it saves them within your device.

Guaranteed user anonymity: 03 Wallet guarantees the anonymity of their wallet users in the sense that it doesn’t ask for any of your personal information when creating a user account and neither does it collect and store any information that’s personally identifiable to you. Your crypto transactions are, therefore, wholly anonymous.

Military-grade encryption: All the data collected by the wallet, including your wallet address, private keys, and passwords, is also subjected to military-grade encryption. So are all wallet communications with third party systems like payment processors and exchanges.

How to set and activate the 03 Wallet

Step 1: Search for 03 Wallet on Google play store of Apple app store and download

Step 2: Install the wallet and, once complete, launch the app and select “Create a New Wallet.”

Step 3: Create a password for your wallet. This not only helps secure your app vault but also plays a key role in randomizing your private key.

Step 4: Click on the settings tab and proceed to backup your crypto wallet.

Step 5: Your 03 Wallet is now active and ready for use.

How to add/receive crypto into your 03 Wallet

Step 1: Log in to your 03 crypto wallet, and on the user dashboard, click on the “Receive” tab.

Step 2: The wallet will display both the public address and the QR code that you can copy and send to the individual sending you coins.

Step 3: Alternatively, use the “Buy” option and buy crypto from the integrated exchanges.

Step 4: Wait for your crypto to reflect on your wallet.

How to send crypto from your 03 Wallet

Step 1: Log in to your 03 crypto wallet app and on the user dashboard, click “send.”

Step 2: If you have multiple crypto coins held in here in different wallets, select the crypto you want to send

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

Step 4: Confirm the accuracy of these details and hit send

03 Wallet ease of use

03 Wallet is very user friendly and easily navigable with all the important tabs carefully placed on the user dashboard. The wallet is designed to appeal to novice and experienced traders alike. The onboarding process is quick and straightforward, and so are the processes of sending and receiving crypto. 03 is also a light wallet that doesn’t eat into your phone’s storage or battery power while guaranteeing the fastest transaction processing speeds.

03 Wallet supported currencies

03 is a multi-currency asset, implying that it supports a wide variety of cryptocurrencies. Supported cryptos include Neo, Neo Gas, ONT, all NEP-5 tokens, and all ONT-G tokens.

03 Wallet cost and fees

Installing the 03 Wallet and storing your cryptocurrencies therein is free. You will, however, be charged a network fee for outbound transactions by the NEO and ONT networks.

Other charges that you might incur when using 03 Wallet include the exchange fees accrued when you buy or sell crypto. This fee is fixed at 15% of the total value, but you enjoy a 50% discount if you use the exchange’s native token – SWTH.

What are the pros and cons of using the 03 Wallet

Pros:                                                                                                           

  • The wallet app is highly intuitive and beginner-friendly
  • 03 Wallet is quite versatile as its available on mobile and desktop
  • 03 integrates a crypto exchange and supports crypto purchases using a credit card
  • Wallet users also have access to a readily available customer support team via Telegram and twitter
  • The transaction processing fees are minimal and discounted – in the case of the Switcheo exchange

Cons:

  • When the wallet uses your device’s password, you risk losing private keys should you deactivate the password before backing up the vault
  • It is a hot wallet
  • It ignores key security features like the two-factor authentication

Comparing 03 Wallet with other Neo-blockchain crypto wallets

03 Wallet vs. Neo Web Wallet

03 Wallet and Neo web wallet are some of the most innovative and easy to use Neo-blockchain wallets. They are also Neo-specific, relatively safe, and promote anonymous crypto trading. They also encrypt your user data and store it in your device. However, while Neo is web-based, 03 Wallet is a desktop and mobile app.

While Neo Web wallet may be considered faster in transaction processing, 03 Wallet carries the day when it comes to the number of supported currencies, integration with crypto exchanges, and support of multiple payment processing service providers.

Verdict: Is 03 Wallet safe?

Well, the desktop and mobile wallet app has embraced key security and anonymity measures that guarantee the security and anonymity of your trades. It, for instance, is hierarchically deterministic in generating wallet addresses, it is open-sourced, and allows for anonymous trading. Moreover, it introduces the concept of partitioning your wallet to create hot and cold storage. However, we must mention that 03 is still a hot wallet and, therefore, exposed to the inherent threats dogging online wallets.

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Crypto Videos

Is Bitcoin rising because the US Dollar is falling? #correlated

https://youtu.be/5yVezykENJA

https://youtu.be/5yVezykENJA

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Is Bitcoin rising because the US Dollar is falling?

 

Thank you for joining this educational video by forex.academy. In this video, we will be looking at the rising bitcoin and the falling US dollar.


Let’s take a look at the US dollar currency index, also known as DXY, on this daily chart where we can see that at the beginning of March, there was a high of 103.00 when measured against other currencies which make up the major pairs, including the Euro, GB Pound, Swiss Franc, Japanese Yen, Australian dollar, and the New Zealand Dollar, and the Canadian Dollar, and where since then the DXY has fallen to its current level of around 93.00. this is entirely due to the American economy suffering at the hands of the covered virus.

And although the recent economic data from the United States, including upbeat retail sales and non-farm productivity for July, were better than expected, and where the initial jobless claims for August was also lower than expected, all depicting a slightly healthier economy then was forecast by market economists, the dollar remains very much on the back foot. This will likely continue until such time as the democrats and republicans agree to a relief stimulus package to aid those unemployed Americans and struggling companies.


Now let’s look at this bitcoin futures chart on the Chicago mercantile exchange, or CME, going back to June of this year and where we can see that prices failed to fall below the key 9,000 to the US Dollar support area and since the latter part of July, prices have increased almost exponentially up to its current level of 11,870.
And so we can clearly see that in this extra time of market turbulence and volatility, the dollar is clearly falling, and bitcoin futures are clearly rising. Historically the markets typically do not use a correlation mechanism – in this case, a negative correlation – in order to trade one against the other. However, is that about to change?

It is a widely held belief that the highest ever spike in bitcoin to around 20,000 was driven by the fear of missing out or the FOMO effect.
However, some institutions and market analysts are fearful that the biggest single currency in the world, the United States dollar, will continue to take a battering, and that holding just one currency at such times of market turbulence and uncertainty may have inflationary pressures within the United States, and therefore there is a trail of thought is that some long-term speculators are moving out of the US dollar, even in these risky times, preferring to diversify into bitcoin, where market upside potential is possible on the basis that bitcoin has seen a previous high of 20,000 and whereby a floor seems to be established of around 9,000. This will give investors some comfort in believing that the coins will not go down to a few dollars, for example, and this will likely fuel the FOMO effect and thus the continued trend for both assets.