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Crypto Videos

The Complete Guide To Binance DEX – Crypto Master

 

Binance DEX guide

Binance has released a decentralized exchange in addition to its traditional one. The Binance DEX is now running on the testnet. Binance wanted to tackle the problems of the conventional exchange model. Having a decentralized exchange puts back full custody in customers’ hands as well as goes along with the principle that cryptocurrency decentralization.

Binance DEX is a decentralized order-matching engine that does not have any influence, power, or custody over its users. Binance DEX should be seen as an extension of the traditional Binance exchange, especially now that Binance DEX is only in testnet. As Binance DEX required a blockchain to be built on, Binance Coin (BNB) will transform from an ERC-20 token to a cryptocurrency with its blockchain called Binance Chain.


Binance DEX guide

Binance DEX currently allows people to create a wallet and start exchanging their tokens on it.

How to Start Creating a Wallet

Click the “Create Wallet” icon that appears on the official website. After creating a wallet, pick one of the three options to how you want to access your wallet:
Keystore File + Password;
Mnemonic Phrase;
Private Key.

Binance DEX requires all users to use the Keystore file + password, while the choice between Mnemonic Phrase and Private Key is left to the users. The chosen method will act as a secondary way of accessing the account wallet.
Creating a Keystore file requires users to enter a password that is at least eight characters in length. The password must include an upper case letter, a symbol, and a number for it to be accepted. After the password is created, the mnemonic phrase will be shown.


Unlocking
the wallet

Before placing any trades, users are required to unlock their wallets. That can be done by clicking on any of the relevant tabs which will lead you to the password window. Once you choose one of the three aforementioned methods of wallet accessing and input it, you are ready to go.
Adding funds to the Testnet account
Adding funds to Binance DEX will give users free 200 BNB funds. All testnet users are required to have at least 1 BNB token on their traditional Binance account so they can receive the 200 BNB testnet funds. This requirement is not a limitation, but rather a security measure against spam.


Binance DEX trading interface

Binance DEX user interface (UI) is created to be easy to use and intuitive, as that was one of the biggest downsides to other DEXs.
TradingView chart is the center of Binance’s user interface. This chart is connected to TradingView, which means that all indicators, strategies as well as the ability to draw on the chart are available on Binance DEX.

The bottom left-hand side of the UI is where users can track their Open Orders, Order History, Trade History, and Balances.

Binance DEX currently supports only Limit orders, but other types of orders will be available. Limit orders can be located at the lower right-hand corner of the interface.

The order book can be found in the right-hand side middle part of the interface. By utilizing the order book, users can see a list of open orders on the exchange for both asks and bids.

The Left-hand side middle part of the UI is reserved for the trading history panel. This part of the UI shows users all trades that occurred on the selected trading pair and in a certain period.

Available trading pairs can be located at the upper left-hand side of the UI. Additionally, this part of the UI also shows the current price of the asset, 24-hour percentage price change, and the 24-hour volume.

Users can sign out by clicking the “Sign Out” icon at the top right of the user interface when they are finished with trading.

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Crypto Daily Topic

Radix: Why Blockchain could be on its deathbed

Many tech experts believe that blockchain may have been the best thing to happen to humanity since the internet. Considering how revolutionary this technology is, and how disruptive it has been on almost every industry, you wouldn’t be mistaken to agree with them.

However, blockchain has some serious limitations that are not easy to overcome and it was only a matter of time before something better came along. That better thing is already here, and its name is Radix.

What is Radix?

Radix is not a better version of blockchain. It is a new kind of technology that makes trustless and decentralized digital ledgers (DLT) that will ultimately use smart contracts, but without the scaling limitations of blockchain. The Radix platform will be powered by the super fast and highly scalable Radix Engine, which is designed and built to make the creation of on-ledger solutions easier and safer with certain constraints. This is what makes Radix much more superior to blockchain and a safer bet for the future of crypto.

What makes Radix special is that it is a high-throughput platform to develop and distribute decentralized applications, faster and more efficiently than existing platforms.

The network on which it runs, called the Radix Public Network (RPN) is modular and general purpose. This means that the technology the network uses has multiple layer ‘constraints’ that allow for validation of state transitions rather than compute them. It opens up the possibilities of the network to facilitate the development and deployment of all kinds of smart contracts and high-level APIs.

It is designed to be a global computer on which decentralized applications can run efficiently and inexpensively and the company ran a test to prove it.

The Radix Tempo

Think of a blockchain platform, but without blocks. This new platform uses a new kind of consensus protocol known as logical time. It is completely different from those of blockchain and has given birth to its own kind of data structure dubbed ‘Tempo’. 

The Tempo Ledger is made up of three core components:

  1. A connected cluster of nodes
  2. A global ledger database. This is distributed across the nodes.
  3. An algorithm that generates secure cryptographic records of temporal ordered events.

An instance of Tempo is referred to as a Universe. Any event such as a transaction or a message within a Universe is represented by an object referred to as an Atom. All atoms on the network have at least one endpoint destination that is represented by an endpoint address. Such an address is used to route events throughout the network and is derived from a key identity, such as a user’s public key.

The power of Radix

In a live online test, the startup behind Radix simulated the entire 10-year transactions on the Bitcoin network in just 15 minutes. This was about 400 million transactions between 460 million addresses including full signatures and transaction validations across 1,187 nodes in 17 cities around the world. RPN crossed the one million transactions mark in just one minute and recorded a peak speed of 1.4M TPS (transactions per second)!

Radix has been in development since 2011. The developers tout its protocol as the first consistent distributed database with infinite scalability capability – with relative ordering of related events as well as n-1 fault detection. Radix is designed and built to be easy to use and to use minimal resources. Since it can run efficiently even on devices with limited processing and storage resources, it is expected that it will be massively adopted for use with IoT (Internet of Things) networks and devices.

Shortcomings that spell the demise of blockchain

For a long time, the dominant technology the world relied upon to build and deploy distributed ledgers was blockchain. Since the launch of Bitcoin, everyone saw this technology as the savior of mankind – the tech that finally made it possible for everyone on the planet to be on the same page at the same time on almost everything.

However, with the rapid adoption of blockchain, its two main limitations quickly came to light, and proved almost impossible to solve without coming up with a completely different kind of platform. They are:

☑️High risks of centralization: Consensus protocols are the basis of trustless DLT. Blockchain uses very dangerous consensus protocols that place the platform at a very high risk of centralization. If you have heard of the 51% attack, that is just one example. While each consensus protocol carries a certain level of centralization risk, the most secure and most viable are those with the lowest risk.

PoW used in early blockchain networks are not only very inefficient, they are also only as safe as the amount of computing power dedicated to them. This means that the security of a blockchain network is highly dependent on the cumulative power of the nodes on the network and a more powerful adversary would pose a serious threat.

☑️Scalability: While blockchain is a powerful concept with few weak points from which a threat would attack or disrupt its network, it has a serious scalability problem. This technology was a hit largely because it is decentralized and certainly provides data integrity and transactional trust, but it does not scale very well. 

Blockchain 1.0’s scalability problem is what led to the rise of blockchain 2.0 that powers such platforms as Ethereum. However, they too still have scalability problems that holds the platforms back.

In an attempt to overcome blockchain’s PoW risks, industry experts developed the PoS (proof of stake) and DPoS (delegated proof of stake) consensus protocols. While these protocols mitigated the risks and reduced the processing requirements and power intensity of blockchain networks, they are not fool-proof. To date, it is clear that it is not possible to make a blockchain network 100% decentralized.

Technological solutions presented by Radix

Decentralization is the key attribute that adds value to the creation and distribution of data and assets in DLT systems. This is so since it eliminates the need for a trusted third-party and prevents the abuse of power by a central authority. It was only through a distributed ledger that for the first time, people were able to peg value on created digital objects. Cryptocurrencies are so far the most notable products of distributed ledgers and everyone is keen to see how well they will fare in a Radix system.

Radix has three core guiding principles:

  1. True decentralization
  2. Linear scalability
  3. Developer gratification

True decentralization

Radix is a truly decentralized platform with no staking, no masternodes, no coordinator, and no central council. All the current blockchain platforms have some kind of masternodes, stakes, platform coordinators and even governing councils that to some extent ‘own’ the platform. With Radix, there is just a company to administer the platform.

One special way in which Radix eliminates risk of centralization is by use of permissionless consensus system that scales well in both small and large networks. The system is secured by the passage of logical time. This is a property that cannot be faked or bought within the Radix platform. This consensus mechanism is not only incredibly efficient and reliable, but also very power efficient because it does not use more power unless there is a conflict to resolve.

Additionally, Radix does not apply consensus to all events, only those that are in conflict. This feature makes the entire system highly efficient and scalable even at a global scale.

Linear scalability

A truly global decentralized system must have the capability to scale to every single device and be used by every person simultaneously all over the world with no performance bottlenecks. Blockchain cannot offer such scalability.

Radix’s structure makes it easy to fragment and index the data on the platform such that when there is an increase in network demand, more devices can be added to the platform to boost its throughput.

The data on the Radix network is not cut up ad-hocly; the developers of the platform had the foresight to strategize the fragmentation such that devices would have an easy time finding where any piece of data lives in the overall network structure. This eliminates the need of re-indexing every time data is cut up or added to the network and significantly speeds up the performance of the network.

The data structure on the Radix network is pre-cut to 18.4 quintillion shards and key fields are referenced to find where a particular piece of data is on the structure. This ingenious data structure makes the platform highly scalable with no overhead. Both tiny and humongous data sets will find a snugly place to live on the network, meaning that large businesses will find it just as easy to use as an individual does.

Developer gratification

The core mission of the Radix startup is to develop a platform on which developers can build and deploy their decentralized applications (DApps). Much like the Internet has been an enabling technology, Radix aims to offer the very best tools that anyone can use to develop and distribute anything they can think of.

The Radix platform is still under development but this far, it has proven that it can deliver what it promises. The geniuses behind it are imagining a reality where every device with connectivity – smartphones, security cameras, microwave ovens, televisions, smart cars – can join the network and be a part of the consensus mechanism. In all these, the developers should be the biggest winners to spur even greater innovation and to nurture a community in which everyone can believe in.

Blockchain may have ushered in the age of decentralized ledgers, which birthed cryptocurrency, but it has run its course. A blockchain platform cannot be truly decentralized, and there is nothing that can be done to make it scalable enough to be as powerful as a Radix system. It is justifiable, therefore, to conclude that blockchain was the past and will eventually be replaced by Radix, the future of true decentralized digital ledgers.

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Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Nov 13 – China’s stance on crypto skyrockets NEO’s price

The cryptocurrency market is currently in a state of consolidation. However, while the market is consolidating, NEO has been moving up. Due to fundamental news (China’s stance on cryptocurrency), this cryptocurrency increased in price over 100% over the past few weeks. If we look at the past 24 hours, Most of the market is precisely where it was 24 hours ago. Bitcoin went down 0.27%, and it is now trading at $8,744. Ethereum lost 0.16%, while XRP went down 0.34%.

Of the top100 cryptocurrencies by market cap, the biggest gainer is Aurora, with 24.80% daily gain. The biggest loser of the day was RIF Token, which lost 8.62% of its value.

Bitcoin’s dominance remained at the same place from the last time we checked the markets. Its dominance now sits at 65.92%, which is an increase of 0.05% from yesterday’s value.

The cryptocurrency market as a whole now has a market capitalization of $240.2 billion, which represents a decrease of $0.6 billion from yesterday’s value.

What happened in the past 24 hours

There was no big fundamental news that could spark up any moves to the upside or downside in the past 24 hours. As a result of that, the markets kept consolidating, and the price of most cryptocurrencies didn’t move.

However, China’s positive stance on cryptocurrency is still relevant news, especially for NEO. Its price increased by over 100% in the past few weeks. This Chinese cryptocurrency is tied to the government, so any positive news on cryptocurrency coming from China will most likely be followed by NEO’s increase in price.

Michael Novogratz warned the United States of their position in the fintech and blockchain revolution. He stated that China’s blockchain and cryptocurrency revolution might be a threat to the current position of the US in the global economy. He also said that China is already ahead in research on fintech and that the United States is just trying to catch up.

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Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

After Bitcoin’s price tumbled to $8,550, bulls rallied to put it over the $8,640 support level. Bitcoin spent the past 24 hours moving between its support level and $8,820 resistance level. One attempt of breaking this range to the upside was quickly dismantled.


Bitcoin’s volume is still very low, but it has not dropped when compared to yesterday. The values remained relatively the same. The key level of 8,820 added as the price respected resistance at the price point.

Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $8,820                                           1: $8,640

2: $9,120

3: $9,250                                            


Ethereum

Ethereum didn’t move much for the past 24 hours. Its price is still contained within a range between the resistance line of $193.5 and a support line of $185. Ethereum’s bears rallied in a try to break the $185 level to the downside, but the bulls did not allow for that to happen, and the price returned above $185. At one time in the past 24 hours, the price reached $182 for a brief amount of time.


The key levels remain the same as Ethereum is back in the same position as it was yesterday.

Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $193.5                                          1: $185

2: $198                                             2: $178.6

3: $163.5                                          3: $167.8


XRP

XRP hasn’t seen a lot of movement in the past 24 hours, either. Its price is contained between the support level of $0.266 and resistance standing at $0.285. As the range between support and resistance is a bit bigger than with Bitcoin’s current support-resistance distance, the price’s ability to move is also a bit bigger. Still, there was almost no movement in the past 24 hours.


XRP’s volume is still slightly elevated, while its RSI value is approaching oversold levels.

Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $0.285                                           1: $0.266 (major support)

2: $0.31                                             2: $0.245

3: $0.325

Categories
Crypto Videos

What You Don’t Know About Decentralised Exchanges In Under Four Minutes

Decentralized exchanges explained

Bitcoin was designed to be a peer-to-peer system that allows its users to transfer funds or information without central authority or third party getting involved. By using Bitcoin, users fix the problems of censorship, fraud, and many others. On top of that, the automated issuance mechanism of Bitcoin through mining removes the control that central and private banks had.
The primary goal of Bitcoin’s creation was to return the control of money to its owners. However, these same fund owners entrust their funds to third-party services on a daily basis. The most popular service providers in this industry are cryptocurrency exchanges. These centralized exchanges are easy to use and access. On top of that, they are a great option when it comes to using advanced trading features such as margin trading.
However, these exchanges represent a security risk for the users’ funds. Not only that, but they go against everything that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general stand for. While some exchanges have better security features than others, security breaches are not rare in this industry. Exchanges got hacked, and people lost their crypto holdings in a matter of seconds.

So what’s the alternative?

With all that being said, users still need to exchange their funds somewhere. Bitcoin is not yet an accepted payment method in most places, and people need places where they can sell it for fiat currency. Also, obtaining some altcoins can only be done in exchanges where people can exchange major cryptocurrencies for smaller ones. So how can people not compromise their security while still being able to exchange cryptocurrency? The answer lies with decentralized exchanges (better known as DEXs).

Decentralized exchanges

Decentralized exchanges are exchange markets that don’t require a third-party service to hold the customer’s funds. The exchange trades occur directly between users through an automated process, which greatly increases the decentralization aspect of DEXs. The decentralized exchange system opposes the centralized model in which users deposit their funds while the exchange issues them an ‘IOU’ that can is then traded on the platform. These funds are converted back into the cryptocurrency once a withdrawal is asked for.

Pros and cons of DEXs

Decentralized exchanges are a safer option to traditional centralized exchanges as they do not own their users’ keys. On top of that, users are not required to trust the security of the exchange as their funds are held in their wallet rather than the third party.
Decentralized exchanges also value the privacy they provide. Users are not disclosing their details to anyone on the network, which keeps them safe from any type of government intervention.
On the other hand, there are always downsides when it comes to decentralized exchanges. Most DEXs have very complicated user interfaces, which are challenging even to seasoned traders. On top of that, most decentralized exchanges have far lower liquidity than their centralized counterparts. On top of that, margin trading, lending, and stop-loss are currently unavailable on many DEXs.

Summary

Decentralized exchanges provide a unique way of transacting cryptocurrencies. However, there are still many obstacles to tackle before DEXs become what they are intended to be. With low liquidity and non-user-friendly interfaces, DEXs are just another tool for people that want to exchange their crypto assets safely. However, to mass adoption, DEXs have a long way to go.

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Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Nov 12 – Markets stale, XRP preparing for a new move

The cryptocurrency market did not move at all since our last report. After the bears took over the market for a short time, everything stayed calm. If we look at the past 24 hours, Bitcoin went down 0.31%, and it is now trading at $8,763. Ethereum lost 0.45%, while XRP went down 0.26%.

Of the top100 cryptocurrencies by market cap, the biggest gainer is Aurora, with 23.28% daily gain. The biggest loser of the day was DxChain Token, which lost 19.11% of its value.

Bitcoin’s dominance remained at the same place from the last time we checked the markets. Its dominance now sits at 65.87%.

The cryptocurrency market as a whole now has a market capitalization of $240.87 billion.

What happened in the past 24 hours

There was no news that could spark up any moves to the upside or downside in the past 24 hours. As a matter of fact, after the markets dropped in price, everything stopped. No significant fundamental news worth noting, low volume in the markets, no significant price movement.

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Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s price tumbled to $8,650 yesterday morning as bears took over. However, the key level of $8,640 held and the price bounced back quickly. All the key levels proved to be well-respected. However, Bitcoin’s price took another blow this morning. Bitcoin fell under the $8,820 line and even tested the lows under the key level of $8,640 by reaching the price of $8,600. Bulls, however, rallied, and the price remained above this key level.


 

Bitcoin’s volume keeps decreasing more and more if we exclude occasional volume spikes, which results in sudden price drops.

Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $9,125                                           1: $8,640

2: $9,250

3: $9,580                                            


Ethereum

Ethereum is still in the same spot it was for the majority of the past week. Its price is contained within a range between the resistance line of $193.5 and a support line of $185. If we look at the past 24 hours, its price slowly decreased and tried to test the $185 key level, and even broke it downwards to $184,4 at one point. However, the bulls rallied and moved the price back up.


Ethereum’s volume is on extremely low levels when compared to the previous days. The key levels remain the same as Ethereum is back in the same position as it was before the weekend.

Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $193.5                                          1: $185

2: $198                                             2: $178.6

3: $163.5                                          3: $167.8


XRP

XRP is in a pretty interesting spot at the moment. Even though its price is contained within a range, its volume is rather high (and so is the probability of a move – to the upside or downside). After failing to break its resistance of $0.285, XRP is trading between that key level and its major support of $0.266.


As XRP’s RSI shows quite low values and its volume is high, there is a high chance of an attempt to break the key resistance level to the upside happening soon.

Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $0.285                                           1: $0.266 (major support)

2: $0.31                                             2: $0.245

3: $0.325

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Public and Private Keys: A must read before buying any cryptocurrency 

If you’ve heard of cryptocurrency, you’ve probably also heard of private and public keys, or at least private and public address. You’ve also probably wondered about the concept behind them. This simple guide is all you need to understand the concept and secure your coins. 

Private and public keys are important components of blockchain – the technology behind cryptocurrencies. To understand cryptocurrencies better and stay safe while interacting with them, it’s essential to know the meaning of private and public keys and their role in cryptocurrency. 

Public and private keys are based on cryptography, which simply means the science and art of encrypting information so that third parties can’t understand it. In other words, cryptography enables data to be stored and communicated in a manner that unauthorized parties cannot understand. It’s employed today in private and public keys to make blockchain- and hence cryptocurrency, a safe environment for users. 

Cryptography is mostly famous for being used in wartime, especially by Julius Caesar, the Roman military general who sent encrypted messages to his generals to ensure the enemy couldn’t understand them. Known today as Caesar’s cipher, his cryptography involved shifting each letter of a word three times to the left of the alphabet. 

Today, encryption is all around us, even if we don’t realize it. From our phone apps to our phone screens to our credit cards – all these are encrypted to protect our personal information.  

Symmetric Key Cryptography and Asymmetric Key Cryptography  

Cryptography exists in two forms: asymmetric key cryptography and symmetric key cryptography. 

In symmetric cryptography, the same key is used to both encrypt and decrypt the message. A good example is Julius Caesar’s encrypted messages. The same key, i.e., using three letters to the left of the alphabet, can be used to decrypt or decode the message. Another example is today’s door lock, in which the same key is used to lock and unlock the door. 

The drawback to symmetric key cryptography is somebody can figure it out soon enough. Using the above examples, for instance, it’s easy for someone to steal a key to a door lock. And Julius Caesar’s opponents could figure out the cipher, eventually.

Asymmetric cryptography, on the other hand, is more complex. Two keys are used to decrypt information. In the case of blockchain, one key – the public key, is used to encrypt data and a second key – the private key, is used to decrypt it. 

Asymmetric cryptography adds an extra layer of security to a transaction by securing both the item transacted and the recipient’s ability to access it.  

Public Key Cryptography and Blockchain

The idea behind blockchain technology is to create a network where people can securely carry out transactions without the possibility for a third party or a central authority interfering. The security of the network, transactions, and parties involved is crucial to this process. In a traditional model, the third party, or the authority, usually provides the security – like the bank overseeing transactions, or protecting money in general.

But the blockchain model has no overseeing authority. So how will security be ensured? The answer is in public and private keys – which are based on cryptography. 

Public and private keys are digital assets that, when combined, form a digital signature, allowing the secure sharing and unlocking of information or data. 

What’s the Difference between Public and Private Key? 

Since the blockchain model uses cryptography to facilitate transactions, and public cryptography uses both public and private keys, every user on a blockchain network has a public and private key.

Now, the keys are usually randomly generated alphanumeric sequences that are unique to every user.   

A blockchain network, e.g., Bitcoin, usually generates a private key when a user creates a wallet. This key uses 256-bit encryption. This encryption makes use of really large numbers that unauthorized parties can’t guess or calculate. After the key is generated, it’s incredibly important that it’s kept private and secure. Nobody other than the owner is to see or have access to it. 

The private key confirms a person’s identity when carrying out a transaction on the blockchain. 

By contrast, the public key is exactly that – the key that an individual shares with the public, or in this case, the blockchain network. The public key is also generated by the blockchain network based on the private key. This means it’s only that private key in the world that can decrypt a message attached to that public key.

It helps to think of the public and private keys in real-world terms. Think of the public key as your bank account number – people who know it can send you money through it. The private key is like your pin code – it’s only known to you, and you use it to access the money in your bank account. 

How Public and Private Keys Work

An individual’s private and public keys combine to create a digital signature that proves their ownership of funds and allows them access to those funds. To carry out a transaction on the blockchain, a person must use both keys together. 

The following is an illustration of how public and private keys work. Person A wants to send, let’s say, Bitcoin to Person B. They can do this by obtaining Person B’s public key, and attaching the relevant information – in this case, the number of coins, to that public key, and then send it to Person B. 

As the information is attached to person B’s public key, and it’s only their private key than can decrypt the information on their public key, Person A is sure that it’s only Person B who can see that information on the blockchain network. So, Person A will use Person B’s key to encrypt the information, because only Person B’s private key can decipher it.

Person B receives the information from Person A, and using their private key, creates a digital signature which will unlock the information and access it. 

The role of a digital signature is central to this process. On the blockchain network, it serves these three purposes:

☑️ It proves that the owner of a private key has authorized a transaction

☑️ It proves that a transaction is undeniable – i.e., there’s no doubt that the owner and they alone authorized the transaction, and they cannot repudiate their involvement in it in future

☑️ It proves that the transaction has been authorized by that signature and has not been altered or modified by anyone after it was signed

How does Blockchain Use Cryptography? 

The blockchain model uses cryptography in these ways: 

Protects the identity of users – It enables every individual to keep their identity private, so they can securely transact on the network

Secures blocks –It allows people to execute transactions on the blockchain, which then adds blocks which no one can modify, sealing them permanently

Validate transactions – It enables individuals on the network to confirm transactions are indeed initiated by who they say they’ve been initiated by, and they can thus be added on the blockchain 

Conclusion 

It’s exciting to see how cryptography – the technology behind public and private keys, has evolved from being used during medieval wars to become the technology that enables people to transact on the futuristic blockchain world. And as blockchain technology continues to become accepted by other industries outside of finance, cryptography will continue to be central. It will be exciting to see how art and science will play a role in blockchain-based processes in the future. 

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Nov 11 – Cryptocurrency markets dropping, IRS chasing crypto-tax evaders

The cryptocurrency market had a slightly red weekend but started to consolidate and rise in price afterwards. After most cryptocurrencies had their time consolidating, bears took over the market and the price of most cryptocurrencies fell significantly. If we look at the past 24 hours, Bitcoin went down 3.24%, and it is now trading at $8,721. Ethereum lost 2.54%, while XRP went down 2.69%.

Of the top100 cryptocurrencies by market cap, the biggest gainer is DxChain Token, with 28.38% daily gain. The biggest loser of the day was Synthetics Network, which lost 8.55% of its value.

Bitcoin’s dominance decreased as its price fell more when compared to most altcoins. However, the decrease was is only fractional. Its dominance now sits at 65.87%, which represents an increase of around 1% when compared to the value it had on Friday.

The cryptocurrency market as a whole now has a market capitalization of $239.5 billion.

What happened in the past 24 hours

The Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement which include representatives from the US, UK, Australia, Canada as well as the Netherlands talked about cryptocurrencies and ways that people avoid taxes as well as how to potentially stop it. The IRS stated that they are now better suited to tackle cryptocurrency tax evasion.

The IRS also claims that they already identified “dozens” of suspects by using the knowledge they obtained during this forum.

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Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

Bitcoin had a rough weekend as cryptocurrency markets tumbled down. However, its price recovered fast, and the outlook is slightly bullish at the moment. During the drop, the price reached the price of $8,650, but bounced back quickly. All the key levels proved to be well-respected. However, Bitcoin’s price took another blow this morning. Bitcoin fell under the $8,820 line. BTC is now held by the support standing at $8,640.


Bitcoin’s volume keeps decreasing more and more if we exclude occasional volume spikes which result in sudden price drops. One change in the key levels is that the support level of $8,820 was not respected well enough, so it will be removed for now.

Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $9,125                                           1: $8,640

2: $9,250

3: $9,580                                            


Ethereum

Ethereum spent quite a few days of the past week contained within a range between the resistance line of $193.5 and a support line of $185. When bears took over the market, the price fell below the support line and reached a price of $180. However, as time passed, Ethereum regained its strength and moved back to the same range it was in previously. It is currently trading at $186.


Ethereum’s volume had a big volume spike which helped it cross the $185 resistance. However, that volume died down quickly. The key levels remain the same as Ethereum is back in the same position as it was before the weekend.

Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $193.5                                          1: $185

2: $198                                             2: $178.6

3: $163.5                                          3: $167.8


XRP

Unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum which mostly recovered from their latest price losses, XRP failed to do so. After bears took the market in their own hands, XRP fell to the price of $0.27. Bulls quickly came to the fight but failed to form enough buying power to pass the $0.285 resistance level. XRP is currently positioned between the $0.285 resistance and $0.266 support, with its price being $0.275 at the moment.


XRP is currently trading with a volume that exceeds the average by quite a large margin. The only change to key levels is that the $0.285 is now acting as resistance rather than support.

Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $0.285                                           1: $0.266 (major support)

2: $0.31                                             2: $0.245

3: $0.325

Categories
Crypto Videos

What Is Proof Of Stake & Will It Make Ethereum Better Than Bitcoin

 

What is proof of stake, and how does it work?

The proof of stake system is a consensus protocol that came as a response to the shortcomings of proof of work. It is attracting a lot of attention as of late, with Ethereum switching its consensus protocol from proof of work to proof of stake. Proof of stake is nothing more than an alternative way to verify transactions on a blockchain.

How does it all work?

Proof of work and proof of stake works very differently, even though they are trying to do the same thing. The proof of work system has its users validate transactions and create new blocks by solving a “puzzle,” which requires some computational power. On the other hand, a proof of stake consensus algorithm requires the user to show ownership of their funds to validate transactions.


When it comes to proof of stake system, the creator of a new block is picked in a pseudo-random way. The block creator has more chance depending on the size of their “stake.” In the proof of stake system, blocks considered forged or minted rather than mined. Nodes who validate transactions and create new blocks with this system are not miners, but rather forgers.
To validate transactions and create blocks, a forger must stake their funds. Their holdings are being held in an escrow account, which acts as collateral for any potential fraud attempts. If a forger tries to validate a fraudulent transaction, they lose both their staked holdings and their rights to participate in the process. This way, the proof of stake protocol incentivizes forgers to validate only non-fraudulent transactions.
An important thing to note is that most proof of stake projects already created and distributed their digital currency units already. When this is the case, the forgers receive transaction fees instead of new cryptocurrency as rewards. This is considered true only if the cryptocurrency cannot inflate itself by minting more and more coins.

Block selection methods

Proof of stake consensus algorithm needs a way to select future forgers. There are two main ways to do so:

Selecting a user randomly
Selecting a user based on their coin age.

Selecting a forger only by the size of their account balance would go against the whole premise of cryptocurrencies, and is a bad idea. That way, people with more funds would get richer, while the ones with fewer funds on their account would be hindered and have less control over block creation. To counter this problem, these two methods have come up as the most popular and reasonable.


Randomized block selection

The randomized block selection method is just what it sounds. The method seeks a user that offers the lowest hash value regarding the size of its stake. As all stake sizes are public, each node can predict (with high probability) whether they will be selected to forge the next block.

Coin age-based selection

This system is a bit different than the randomized block selection one. It selects the next forger based on the ‘coin age’ of the node’s stake. Coin age is a multiplier of the number of days the funds have been staked and the number of coins that are being staked. Coins must be staked for 30 days before they can compete for block creation. Users with larger stakes have an advantage, but so do users who have staked for a longer time. Once a user forges a block, their coin age is reset to zero. After a node forges a block, they must wait at least 30 days before creating another block. This mechanism promotes decentralized forging while maintaining a power balance between large stake forgers and lower stake forgers.
Advantages of proof of stake
Proof of stake is a much more environmentally friendly and efficient consensus algorithm than the proof of work method. The electricity and hardware costs are much lower due to how the method is made.

Unlike proof of work system where a 51% attack is performed by obtaining the majority of hash rate, proof of stake attackers would be required to obtain 51% of the cryptocurrency to perform the attack. Even though performing a 51% attack is possible, forgers with the majority of funds would not risk their money to perform such an attack. If the cryptocurrency price drops due to the attack, their holding value would also drop.

Conclusion

Proof of stake is a consensus algorithm that is created as an answer to the disadvantages of proof of work. It offers a unique way of validating transactions and creating blocks, and it is gaining popularity. With that being said, the Proof of Stake algorithm is not better than Proof of Work on all fronts, and each project should consider both methods before picking the one they like.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Will Adaptive Scaling Problems be the Death of Blockchain?

With all the hype blockchain has generated in the business and technical press, would you believe it that it has one serious limitation that risks rendering it obsolete in the near future?

Blockchain technology has proven to have the potential to disrupt many industries. However, before it is considered a real and viable alternative to the age-old centralized systems that have brought humanity thus far, systems running on it must be able to process transactions way faster than what it is capable now, and scale sufficiently to be useful for both large and small systems.

Even as cryptocurrencies take center stage in the evolution of blockchain technologies, there are still lingering questions as to whether the problem of scalability can be sufficiently addressed without trading off any of the technology’s core features. This concern has brought forward the blockchain scalability trilemma, which dictates that blockchain systems must choose two out of the three main attributes:

☑️Security

☑️Decentralization

☑️Scalability

At present, all major blockchain applications have focused on maximizing the benefits of security and decentralization at the expense of scalability.

To fully appreciate the extent of adaptive scalability in cryptography and in particular, cryptocurrency, we may need to take a step back and understand the history of this revolutionary technology.

History and development of cryptography

Ever since humans could communicate, there has always been a need to communicate selectively. Even before the development of written language, the art of coding messages such that only the intended persons could access the information was common. Unauthorized persons could access the message being transmitted but could not extract or understand it. This is the art of cryptography.

Cryptography, the base technology of cryptocurrency, may seem like a very young technology, but it is not. It is a science and an art that has been used for almost 4,000 years to conceal secret messages in such a way that only the intended recipient can decode it. The earliest known evidence of the use of cryptography was found in inscriptions carved in the tomb of ancient Egyptian Great Chief  Khnumhotep II, back when written language relied on hieroglyphic symbols.

Cryptography has steadily evolved with the advancement of communication technology and only took a major leap with the development of digital media.

With the evolution of computing as a medium of communication, many cryptographic algorithms that use different protocols and apply unique functions have been developed. The only thing that has been constant throughout the ages is the fact that cryptography is not static.

The steady advancement of computing and the invention of new cryptanalysis methods have led to the adoption of newer and stronger algorithms. In the process, these have led to the use of larger key sizes to encrypt and decrypt messages.

More complex cryptanalysis became necessary because the development of better computing technologies render older cryptographic algorithms inadequate to provide the protection they were intended to offer. However, because of the adaptive scaling of cryptography, older algorithms, methods, and functions are often supported in newer ones to ensure backward interoperability and compatibility.

Adaptive scaling in cryptographic algorithms

The primary purpose of cryptography is to offer confidentiality, nonrepudiation, authentication, and integrity of data for communications in private and public networks and storage media.

Cryptography is also the base technology on which cryptocurrency is built. One of the core features of cryptography that makes cryptocurrency possible is adaptive scaling. This is the idea that the cryptocurrency is developed with measures that ensure that it will work, as intended, in both small and large scales.

The epitome application of cryptography in modern technology was the invention of cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is a digital asset that is used as a medium of exchange. It relies on strong cryptography for three things:

☑️ To verify the transfer of assets from one user to another.

☑️ To control the creation of additional units.

☑️ To secure financial transactions

Bitcoin’s adaptive scaling problem

One of the greatest challenges that the developers of Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency, had to deal with was scalability. The scalability problem of cryptocurrency refers to the limits on the number or amount of transactions that the network on which the asset runs, in this case the bitcoin network, can hold.

Bitcoin’s scalability problem was brought on by the fact that the records on the network, aptly referred to as blocs, are limited in both size and the frequency in which they are produced.

A bloc on the bitcoin network is a ledger of transactions that take place within the network. To overcome this adaptability problem, the size of a standard block is limited to 1MB and is produced on average every 10 minutes. These limits are put in place to constrain the bitcoin network’s throughput to make it run efficiently on computing machines with different capabilities.

Bitcoin’s algorithm is designed to adjust after the addition of 2016 blocks to the blockchain. In theory, it takes about two weeks. The mining process (verification of blocks before addition to the blockchain) gets harder or easier depending on how long it takes for the 2016 blocks to be verified and added to the chain.

The spike in the price of Bitcoin in December 2017 brought to light Bitcoin’s major scalability challenge. The explosion of attention and popularity attracted millions of new users and even more transactions, leading to the Bitcoin network reaching the limits of its capacity. Considering that the network limited to about seven transactions per second, it quickly became overloaded. This shows that if Bitcoin was to go mainstream today, it would definitely be bogged down by hefty transaction fees and massive delays that would render it impractical.

Solutions to cryptocurrency adaptive scaling challenges

The limited size of a block of transactions on the bitcoin network was bound to create a performance bottleneck that resulted in the delay of processing transactions that cannot fit into a block and the increase of transaction fees.

To address such a problem in their ‘blockchain 2.0’ cryptocurrency, the developers of Ethereum introduced an adjustable block size feature. The size of a block of smart transactions was determined by the number of gas units that could be spent per block, known as block gas limit. At present, the average Ethereum block size ranges between 20 and 30kb, and miners are accepting blocks with block gas limits of about 10,000,000.

There have been other measures developed to deal with the adaptive scaling problems in cryptographic digital assets. One of the most effective ways is incorporating algorithms that limit the supply of the tokens or coins over time to create scarcity.

Bitcoin’s fundamental appeal is that there will only ever be 21 million coins in circulation. The planned limitation on the potential amount of coins in supply ensures an excellent stock-flow ratio, which naturally makes Bitcoin a great investment.

Another effective solution to the adaptive scaling problems is the use of a reward formula that consistently reduces the rewards awarded to miners for verifying transactions on the network. The bitcoin network halves the reward to miners after every 210,000 blocks are added to the blockchain to ensure that there is a steady supply of Bitcoins.

However, this is only a solution that will work for as long as the 21 million bitcoins have not been mined. Once the limit is reached, the mining rewards will be insignificant, and Bitcoin will have to shift to rewarding its miners with transaction fees instead, as posited by Satoshi Nakamoto in the Bitcoin whitepaper.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Will The Next Bitcoin Halving Send The Price Into Space? #Moon

https://youtu.be/obpfVVZY02M

What is Bitcoin halving?

Before explaining Bitcoin halving, we need to know how Bitcoin mining works. Each time a block is verified by submitting a correct answer to the equation, new Bitcoins come as a reward. Satoshi Nakamoto set up two major rules for the proof of work protocol:

Bitcoin’s maximum supply is finite. It is limited to 21 million and cannot be changed.

The number of Bitcoins generated per block and distributed as a mining reward halves (decreases by 50%) every 210,000 blocks.


How long until Bitcoin rewards halve?

As one block is found every 10 minutes on average, 210,000 blocks would be found in approximately four years. The mining reward for solving the block puzzle will halve by 50% every four years. Bitcoin’s first mined block rewarded the miner 50 Bitcoin. Two halvings after, and we are in the present, where each block grants 12.5 Bitcoin. Next, halving will reduce that amount to 6.25 Bitcoin and so forth until there are no more Bitcoin to be mined. When there are no more Bitcoin to be mined, miners will be compensated through mining fees.

Why is halving created?

The explanation of the creation of halving events lies in the law of supply and demand. If coins are mined too fast, the supply will rise too fast, and there will be a lot more Bitcoin in circulation. This will, in turn, devalue the currency.
Vitalik Buterin, the lead developer of the Ethereum project, explained the need for halving to occur is to keep inflation under control. Additionally, he explained that “One of the major faults of traditional fiat currencies controlled by central banks is that the banks can print as much of the currency as they want, and if they print too much, the laws of supply and demand ensure that the value of the currency starts dropping quickly.”


When Will the Next Halving Occur?

As previously mentioned, each block takes 10 minutes to generate on average. Taking that into consideration, we can estimate the next block halving event to occur somewhere around June 2020. Many websites track block generation and estimate when the reward halving will happen exactly. They even have countdowns that let people know the date and time of the estimation.
One important thing to mention is that some people noticed that each block takes only 9 minutes and 20 seconds on average to generate, instead of the presumed 10.

How Will the Bitcoin Halving Affect Bitcoin’s Price?

As block halving essentially reduces the further supply of Bitcoin, many people will ask whether the price will be affected by this event. Sadly (or fortunately), no one knows. The 2016’s halving event had no major effects on the price at that time. A week after the event, Bitcoin went from $650 to $675.
However, even if there are no apparent signs of price change, economic principles of supply and demand still work. Either the price will increase after the halving, or the current price already includes the speculation of what’s about to happen.

Conclusion

Bitcoin is a scarce asset by design. The specific rules, such as a limited supply of 21 million Bitcoin as well as an inflation reduction “tool,” which is the halving event, make sure that Bitcoin becomes even more valuable over time. The Bitcoin halving event should not be considered as a date at which the price of Bitcoin skyrockets, but rather a tool which keeps inflation in check. This is one of the main attributes of Bitcoin and one that separates it from fiat currencies, which are inflationary by nature.

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Nov 7 – Crypto-mining in China no longer illegal

After a green day yesterday, the cryptocurrency market has started to consolidate. There were no big movers if we look at the top10 cryptocurrencies. This consolidation is usually a healthy move after the price drops or surges. Bitcoin went down 0.17%, and it is now trading at $9,299. Ethereum lost 0.14%, while XRP gained 0.86%.

Out of the top100 cryptocurrencies by market cap, the biggest gainer is Tezos, with 28.30% daily gain followed by Swipe’s 13.20% and Ren’s 12.27% gain. The biggest loser of the day was Chiliz, which lost 14.84% of its value.

Bitcoin’s dominance went slightly down when compared to the previous day as some cryptocurrencies outperformed its daily gain. Its dominance now sits at 66.59%, which represents a decrease of 0.5% when compared to yesterday’s value.

As the market was pretty stable in the past 24 hours, the market capitalization has not changed much. The slight decline in market capitalization could is just temporary and is a part of the daily crypto fluctuation. Cryptocurrencies as a whole now have a market capitalization of $252.6 billion, which represents an almost $1.1 billion decrease when compared to the previous day.

What happened in the past 24 hours

Most of today’s news came from China. The biggest one would be that China is now outright bullish on cryptocurrencies and does not intend to shut down cryptocurrency mining whatsoever.

China officially stated that cryptocurrency mining is no longer featured on the list of industries it considers undesirable. On top of that, China’s President Xi Jinping calling the country to accelerate blockchain adoption as well as people to invest into cryptocurrencies.

However, cryptocurrency trading is still officially banned in China as the new law comes takes effect on Jan 1, 2020.

_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

After Bitcoin broke its triangle pattern and surged from $9,150 levels to $9,300 levels, it started to consolidate. The price seems to be contained within a range and any attempts of moving out of that range gets shut down. Bitcoin is now trading at $9,09, which is just slightly less than how much it was trading for at 24 hours ago.


Bitcoin’s volume is approximately on the same level as it was for the past couple of days. As there were no new moves to the upside or downside, the key levels stay the same. One addition to the key levels could be the price where Bitcoin broke its triangle pattern, as that seems to be its immediate support at the moment.

Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

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

2: $9,740                                          2: $8,820

3: $10,350                                        3: $8,640


Ethereum

After breaking the $185 resistance line, which now became support, Ethereum seems to be in the hands of the bulls. While volume showed that there was no space for Ethereum’s price to go up or down, the cryptocurrency platform proved otherwise. It tried to move above the $193.5 resistance line, which proved to be a valid bear-filled price point. As the upward-facing move failed, Ethereum is now consolidating close to the $193.5 resistance line.


Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $193.5                                          1: $185

2: $198                                             2: $178.6

3: $163.5                                          3: $167.8


XRP

XRP has proven to be an almost-isolated market. While slightly affected by the price movements of the industry, XRP is more than capable of not mirroring Bitcoin. Not only that, but its price movements are almost completely different. While Bitcoin is trying to stabilize and consolidate, XRP tried to make a quick move up. The price surged from $0.03 all the way to $0.315 before crashing down to the same level it started at, creating two major candles, one green, and one red.


XRP’s RSI touched the overbought indicator at the same time that bears started kicking in. Even though the price movement was quite wild, the key levels are remaining the same as the price did not move past any support or resistance levels.

Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $0.31                                            1: $0.285

2: $0.325                                          2: $0.266 (major support)

3: $0.333                                          3: $0.245

Categories
Crypto Guides

Which kind of Problems can be Solved by Cryptocurrencies?

Introduction

Cryptocurrencies have made an impact on the world’s financial system in an unprecedented way. The speed and agility of global transactions have changed with the advent of cryptos. At present, there are around 3053 cryptocurrencies trading across the world, with a market cap of more than $246 billion. Many global companies around the globe have started to accept cryptos as a mode of payment for the products and services they provide. Bitcoin atm’s and debit cards are making the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies easy and worthwhile. In this article, let us understand the reason for this wide adoption of these cryptos by looking at some of the problems they solve.

🏳️ Centralization: Cryptocurrencies are built on blockchain platforms enabling them to adopt all the features of the blockchain technology. The fiat currency we use today is minted by the central banks of the respective countries. The presence of a central entity to control something is called centralization. Banks play a significant role in the financial status of any country. It is well known that the financial crisis of 2008 is due to the banking crisis. That was the time when Bitcoin came into the picture, paving the way for the decentralized currency. Cryptocurrencies are decentralized with no third-party control. They run on blockchain technology as per the network setup initially. The network is maintained and run by different entities mining the native currency. Thus by no one controlling the money, they remain unique and stable. This is the prominent problem that cryptocurrencies solve over fiat currency.

🏳️ Intermediary costs: The transaction costs to send money between different countries is too high. The respective entities charge a certain percentage of the transaction amount, and it depends on the amount we send and the service we utilize. Also, it takes more time to settle transactions across different countries. There is no limit for cryptocurrency transfer across the world. It is instantaneous with a minimal amount as a transaction fee when compared with the standard bank wire transfers.

🏳️ Privacy: The transactions you make in cryptos are semi-anonymous; some cryptos even ensure complete anonymity. Each of the users will have their crypto addresses, which are used to make transactions. These addresses ensure privacy while transacting cryptos. Having said that, the level of privacy varies from one crypto to others.

🏳️ Security: Blockchain assures the utmost protection when it comes to cryptocurrency transactions. The transactions in the blockchain cannot be reversed; once committed, they are committed for a lifetime. The cryptographic techniques used to secure the transactions are almost impossible to hack.

🏳️ Inflation: Any cryptocurrency has a limit of coins that it can ever have or in some coins, the number of coins that can be mined per year will be capped. In the case of fiat currency, the government can issue bonds and manipulate interest rates to increase the circulating money, thus decreasing its value leading to inflation. Since the number of coins that ever will be available is capped in the case of crypto, inflation can be effectively handled.

These are only a few problems that cryptocurrencies can solve, but with the widespread usage, there would be solutions for problems that we don’t even see now. We hope you find this article informative. Cheers!

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic

Tips to Trading Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies present a world of possibilities. Trading in cryptos can be a thrilling endeavor, not just because of their novelty but also their volatility. Many traders and investors – new and experienced alike, are moving in to try their hand at crypto trading.

While trading in cryptos can be profitable, it’s also really easy to lose your money – thanks in part to their wild volatility and unpredictability. A single mistake in crypto trading can be very costly, and that’s why you should go in with a strategy.

With that, the tips below should set you in the right direction in crypto trading; whether you’re looking to dip your toe in the water or have been in the game for a while. 

Research and Research More

Before diving headfirst into what is usually a murky world of cryptocurrency trading, it’s important to arm yourself with its very basic concepts. This starts with knowing the terminologies mostly thrown around and understanding what they might mean for you. Understand what cryptocurrencies are, the technology powering them (blockchain), how to be safe while trading cryptocurrencies, and so on.

You will also need to read up on the language used in crypto trading, such as limit order, bullish, bearish, market depth, all-time lows, all-time highs, etc. It’ll also be essential to keep tabs on what is happening in the cryptocurrency world. This means knowing new cryptocurrencies, which cryptos are increasing or falling in prices, the market value of different cryptos, etc.

Knowing how different cryptocurrencies have performed in the past, their all-time lows and all-time highs is also necessary. It will help you assess the volatility of cryptos you’re interested in and determine if they’re worth investing in. It might even give you an inkling of their probable future market trends.

Bear in mind that things keep changing in cryptoverse, so one single sitting of research is not nearly enough. What was true six weeks ago may not be true today. The regulation, technology, news, and pretty much everything concerning cryptos is always changing at a fast pace.

Understand Arbitrage

Arbitrage is the difference in the price of the same commodity in two different exchanges – like, say, Bitcoin trading at a slightly lower price on Coinbase than on Binance. Understanding this and acting accordingly can be profitable for you, the trader. But keeping track of the different prices on crypto exchanges is a difficult and time-consuming thing to do.

Other factors that may affect your trading are current volumes of the currencies, variation prices, network fees. To stay on top of these elements, resources such as CoinScanner and other similar tools should be of help. They can help you understand arbitrage better and how to capitalize on it, as well as trade cryptos at the cheapest prices and gain profits.

Be Safe

The first safety rule is to find out the safest places for buying cryptos. The second is to know how to protect them once you’ve bought them. Cryptos, in particular, tend to attract scammers, hackers, phishing attacks, impostors, etc. Take precautions. Always double-check before you enter passcodes/private keys or send money to accounts. Disable any unnecessary extensions in your browser and be careful before opening any URLs.

Protection also means knowing how to store your crypto coins. There are several purpose-built crypto wallets designed with security as a priority. Ledger Nano S, TREZOR, Atomic Wallet, Abra, are some of the most trusted wallets out there.

Crypto Exchanges Are For Just That – Exchanging

Even if you’re a pro at crypto trading, you could lose your money if you’re not careful enough. Cryptocurrency has no insurance, and the responsibility of protecting your coins is yours only.

Many people make the mistake of leaving their fiat holdings on crypto exchanges after they make profitable trades. Yet, exchanges are not a secure place to store your assets. The story of Mt. Gox illustrates this too well. The former world’s leading Bitcoin exchange was put out of business, and thousands of customer coins stolen after a cyber-attack.

The best way to avoid losing your assets on exchanges is to keep your coins in a secure wallet. Also, don’t use the device that contains your assets over public Wi-Fi. Apply other precautions detailed on the safety tip above.

Don’t Ignore the Market Cap

Most inexperienced traders are prone to making trading decisions based solely on the current coin price of a crypto. The reality is the value of a crypto includes the current circulating supply. So when you’re considering whether to buy a cryptocurrency, try to look beyond the current going price and look at the percentage of the total market cap for the currency. The closer a cryptocurrency is to its market cap, the likelier its demand will rise in the near future. 

Beware of Pump and Dump, FOMO and FUD

FOMO is an abbreviation for fear of missing out. FOMO is one of the reasons many crypto traders fail in the art. This a trick that most ‘whales’ use. Whales are people who are holding massive volumes of crypto coins. Some whales buy (pump) the coins in an attempt to show that the currency is in such high demand, only to come and sell it at high prices (dump) after many people have bought the lie. But once they’ve bought it, they may never get the opportunity to trade it for profit, making losses.

When you see a sudden euphoric rush by many traders to buy a crypto, don’t jump in too because of FOMO. Always do your research and rely on your gut to make decisions – following the crowd might cost you big time.

FUD, on the other hand, stands for fear, uncertainty, and disinformation/doubt. Some people deliberately spread FUD with fake news, fake social media accounts, and manipulated facts just to dump some coins. Always verify the sources and intentions of any crypto news before being driven by FUD to make trading decisions.

Invest With Money You Can Afford To Lose

This goes without saying. The first thing to know is: the only predictable thing about crypto prices is their unpredictability. While this might actually be a good thing for crypto trading, it also might mean that nothing’s ever really assured.

Cases abound of many who have emptied their savings in cryptos, took loans, and lost most of those savings. The bottom line: never invest too much money in a very high-risk market (like cryptos).

Diversify Your Portfolio

The reason why it’s important to diversify your portfolio when trading in cryptos comes down to their unpredictability, again. Don’t be tempted to “hold all your eggs in one basket” and invest in one crypto only.

Also, many people think they should spread risk across several cryptos so that in case one tanks, the rest will turn a profit. But what they need to know is all cryptos seem to follow the pattern set by Bitcoin. When Bitcoin decreases in value against the dollar, all other coins almost always follow suit. So, diversifying among different cryptos may not be enough to cushion you against losses. The idea here is to trade in other types of assets as well.

Know Which Altcoins to Trade In

The truth about many altcoins (all other cryptos besides Bitcoin) is they end up losing value over time, sometimes unexpectedly. This means you shouldn’t hold on to an altcoin for too long.

One way to know if an altcoin is ideal for long term investment is to check the daily trading volumes. If a crypto has a high daily trading volume, then chances are it’s a good option for HODLing to sell in the future. Ethereum. Monero, Litecoin, and Dash are some of the currencies that have displayed consistent daily trading volumes.

Also, check regularly the charts of these cryptos and note spikes in price. The patterns can help to identify the perfect time to sell or buy a coin.

Have a Reason for Your Trades

You need to have a purpose for entering any crypto trade. This is because in cryptocurrency trading, someone always wins, and another one always correspondingly loses.

The crypto market is unfortunately controlled by whales who wait for the ‘small fish’ to make a mistake that will land more money on their hands.

Whether you’re a casual or active trader, sometimes it’s better to cool off and not gain anything than rush in and lose. It may seem counterproductive, but sometimes not trading at all is the only way to stay profitable.

Set Profit Targets and Stop Losses

Trading in any asset requires us to determine a point when we’ll exit the market, whether we’re profiting or losing. The target level is an upper limit where you will close the trade after you have reached a certain profit. If you had set a particular profit target and have achieved that target, it’s time to exit the market.

Also, a stop loss level can help you not lose more than you’re willing to lose. A stop-loss is the limit at which you close out your position if the price is falling. For example, if you bought a coin at $600, you can set that as the minimum point you’re willing to trade it. So if the market doesn’t go as expected, you can walk away without losing much. 

The crypto market is exceptionally volatile, and prices can fall any time. Don’t let greed or emotion guide your decision making.

Do Your Due Diligence on Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs)

ICOs offer the public a way to invest in a crypto coin and make a profit when the coin is listed on an exchange. Since they promise high returns, many traders rush in without conducting some due diligence. This is a mistake because some ICOs have turned out to be scams, and many people have lost money this way.

‘‘Trust, but verify’’ is true when it comes to ICOs. Do your own research about the project. Who are the people behind it? Analyze, based on your research, if they really have the ability to deliver on their promise. Analyze, too, the feasibility of the project. Scrutinize the white paper and seek answers where it doesn’t add up. If by the end, you still doubt the credibility of the project, you’d instead give it a pass than sink your money into it.

Don’t Buy Just Because the Price Is Low

Some beginner traders make the mistake of buying a coin just because it has a low price or is “affordable.” But the decision to buy a coin shouldn’t be determined by its affordability, but rather its market cap.

It’s just like with conventional stocks – they’re evaluated with this formula: Current Market Price multiplied by the Total Number of Outstanding Shares. This same formula applies to cryptocurrencies.

Thus, it’s better to determine a coin’s worth based on its market cap than its market price. The larger a coin’s market cap, the more it is worth to invest in.

Find a Community

It can be challenging to keep up with cryptoverse. There is a lot of information about it, and everything is always changing. To stay on top of things, find a reliable group of fellow traders with whom you can share trends, ideas, strategies, and analyses. And whether it’s on Facebook, Reddit, WhatsApp, or Telegram, remember not everyone is worth listening to.

Conclusion

Crypto trading can turn handsome profits, but the opposite is also true. The very aspect that makes cryptocurrencies an attractive trading option is the same one that requires you to tread carefully when dealing with them. Before you invest your hard-earned money in cryptocurrency, remember these cardinal tips. Also, remember trading in any asset requires a cool and sober head – whether you’re winning or losing. Good luck.

 

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Nov 6 – Senator Romney and the FBI view Crypto as National Security Threat

The cryptocurrency market had another green day. Major cryptocurrencies’ volume is on the decrease, and yet the price rose two days in a row. Almost every cryptocurrency in the top100 is currently in the green, the exceptions mostly being stablecoins. Bitcoin went up 1.78%, and it is now trading at $9,385. Ethereum gained 4.98%, while XRP gained 1.35%.

Out of the top100 cryptocurrencies by market cap, the biggest gainer is Dragon Coins, with 24.53% daily gain followed by Lambda’s 21.71% and Algorand’s 19.42% gain. The biggest loser of the day was Chiliz, which lost 17.59% of its value.

Bitcoin’s dominance went slightly down when compared to the previous day as some cryptocurrencies outperformed its daily gain. Its dominance now sits at 66.82%, which represents a decrease of 0.3% when compared to yesterday’s value.

Cryptocurrencies ended up being in the green in the past 24 hours, which resulted in a small increase in market capitalization of the whole asset class. It now has a market capitalization of $253.78 billion, which represents an almost $3.09 billion increase when compared to the previous day.

What happened in the past 24 hours

The United States Republican Senator Mitt Romney is considering impeaching cryptocurrency from the US as, in his opinion, the threat to national security is rising. The FBI also agreed with that by saying that cryptocurrencies are a “significant problem that will get bigger and bigger”. All this happened during a hearing in the United States Senate Committee On Homeland Security And Governmental Affairs.

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Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s has broken its triangle pattern that it was forming on a daily time-frame and its standing above it with conviction. While the price seems to be performing movements contained in a range, the current candle is looking promising. Bitcoin is now trading at $9,385, which is close to $100 more than it was trading at 24 hours ago.


Bitcoin’s volume is approximately on the same level as it was yesterday. As there were no new moves to the upside or downside, the key levels stay the same.

Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $9,580                                          1: $8,820

2: $9,740                                          2: $8,640


Ethereum

Ethereum’s bulls and bears were fighting for its place above or below the $185 line yesterday. The bulls won, and the price went above the line, but that was not the end of the move. Etherum is now trying to tackle another resistance, which is sitting at $193.5. Ethereum is now trying to break the resistance and its trading right at this price level. The price broke resistance once but was quickly driven down by the strong selling pressure.


Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $193.5                                          1: $178.6

2: $198                                             2: $167.8

3: $163.5


Ripple

XRP has not changed much in terms of price or overall position in the market. It has been stagnant in the past couple of days in terms of breaking any supports or resistances. However, its price did move slightly up in the past 24 hours. The price is still going up and down, performing price moves in the range of $0.286-$0.306. XRP’s price is currently $0.303.


XRP’s RSI is approaching overbought on the 4-hour time frame, which may indicate that bears will be kicking in soon. The key levels are remaining the same as the price did not move past any support or resistance levels.

Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $0.31                                            1: $0.285

2: $0.325                                          2: $0.266 (major support)

3: $0.333                                          3: $0.245

Categories
Crypto Guides

Monero – One Of Those Cryptocurrencies That Ensure 100% Privacy!

Introduction

We have seen the in-depth analysis of different cryptos so far and understood that new coins keep coming up, improvising the shortcomings of the previous ones. Monero is such cryptocurrency.

Monero was launched in 2014 as an open-source, privacy-oriented crypto, operating on the concept of blockchain technology to completely anonymize the transactions in the network. Monero literally means coin in Esperanto. This crypto was initially named BitMonero, forked from the codebase of Bytecoin. Later it was renamed as Monero after a different group led by Johnny Mnemonic took over the project.

Objective

Monero aims to make the platform opaque for outside observers completely. The transactions are made entirely obscured by anonymizing the sender and receiver details. This is done by disguising the addresses used by the users transacting on the platform. While all the cryptocurrencies promise the future of privacy, the degree of confidentiality varies. But Monero achieves the full level of privacy, making it a widely used currency in the dark web.

Mining process

Mining Monero doesn’t need any specialized hardware; hence, there is no need for any significant initial investments in mining the coin. Anyone with a computer can mine the coin and earn rewards.  The founders believe that everyone is equal, and they didn’t even allocate any percentage of coins for them during its inception. They have just used the funds volunteered by the community to develop the currency.

How is the complete privacy ensured?

To ensure complete privacy, Monero uses features such as ring signatures, stealth addresses, and ring confidential transactions. Let us look at the below briefly.

Ring Signatures: While making a transaction in the blockchain network, one must sign the transaction using his private key. In the case of ring signatures, the private sign of the user transacting is combined with the signatures of the other ten users in the network, thus making a ring signature genuinely anonymous.

Stealth Addresses: These are randomly generated one time used addresses for a transaction using the public key of the user making a transaction. Since these are only used one time, the outside observers will have no idea about the transactions.

Ring Confidential Transactions: Ring CT was introduced in January 2017 to conceal the number of coins being transacted in a transaction. They stopped using Ring CT in October 2018.

Market Cap

Monero stands at 13th place in the world of cryptocurrencies, with the market value of around $1.06 Billion, while the value of each coin is at $61.60 as on 03/11/2019. The 24-hour trading volume is approximately $191 Million, with ~17 Million coins circulating in the market. Monero is traded with the ticker symbol ‘XMR’ in all of the cryptocurrency exchanges.

Challenges faced by Monero

Since Monero ensures complete privacy for the transactions, the usage of the currency is particularly popular in the dark web. While, still Bitcoin holds prominence in both the legitimate and illegitimate transactions across the world, owing to its knowledge amongst the people, there is a slow shift towards Monero with the people who wants to cover their tracks. Certain ransomware attackers demand the money exclusively in Monero to decrypt the encrypted files.

The rich privacy feature has made Monero a popular coin shortly after its inception, while its usage in the dark web markets is widely questioned. That’s about Monero. If you have any questions, let us know in the comments below. Cheers!

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Nov 5 – Markets in the green, BTC triangle pattern broken

The cryptocurrency market had a green day. Major cryptocurrencies’ volume is increasing due to new money coming into the markets. Almost every cryptocurrency in the top100 is currently in the green. Bitcoin went up 1.63%, and it is now trading at $9,315. Ethereum gained 2.02%, while XRP gained 2.84%.

Out of the top100 cryptocurrencies by market cap, the biggest gainer is Noah Coin, with 36.10% daily gain followed by Augur’s 16.12% and Aeternity’s 13.68% gain. The biggest loser of the day was iExec RLC, which lost 5.43% of its value.

Even though the prices among the cryptocurrency market started changing, Bitcoin’s dominance has stayed at almost the same level that it was yesterday. Its dominance now sits at 67.23%.

Cryptocurrencies ended up being in the slight red in the past 24 hours, which resulted in a small drop in market capitalization of the whole asset class. It now has a market capitalization of $250.69 billion, which represents an almost $4 billion increase when compared to the previous day.

What happened in the past 24 hours

There was no major fundamental news that sparked this upswing in the past 24 hours. The move probably started by Bitcoin breaking its triangle pattern (which can be seen on the daily time-frame), which, in turn, gave the other cryptocurrencies an initial push.

As a result, most cryptocurrencies saw a daily gain of around 2%, while some gained much more.

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Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s has broken its triangle pattern that it was forming on a daily time-frame. After breaking it upwards, it immediately pushed to test the $9,580 level, but failed to pass it. It is now consolidating at $9,300 level. As it moved further up from the support line of $9,115, we can expect another push to break the first key resistance or a downswing to test the suppport.


Bitcoin’s volume is on a slight upswing due to new money coming in with the push. However, there are no other significant increases.

Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $9,580                                          1: $8,820

2: $9,740                                          2: $8,640


Ethereum

Ethereum’s bulls and bears are fighting for its place above or below the $185 line. After spending almost a week in between its $178.6 support line and $185 resistance line, Ethereum broke the ranging movement with an upswing, which reached $190. This move was, however, unsuccessful, as the price quickly dropped below the $185 line and returned to its previous state. Ethereum is currently trading at $183.5. Key levels are remaining the same as the move did not impact any support/resistance line standings.


Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $185                                             1: $178.6

2: $193.5                                          2: $167.8

3: $198                                             3: $163.5


XRP

XRP has been pretty stagnant in the past couple of days in terms of breaking any supports or resistances. However, its price did move up in the past 24 hours. After giving up on pushing its price up to follow the extremely steep upward-facing trend line, XRP started performing price movements in a range of $0.286-$0.306. Lack of volume continued throughout the weekend and gave XRP no chance to make a move. However, the past 24 hours brought in new volume, and XRP spiked upwards.


The move did not last long and was quickly almost nullified with a big red candle, which brought the price from $0.306 to $0.296, with the tendency to fall further.

Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $0.31                                            1: $0.285

2: $0.325                                          2: $0.266 (major support)

3: $0.333                                          3: $0.245

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Everything You Need To Know About Crypto Currency Wallets

So you’ve bought your cryptocurrency, what’s next? Unlike fiat currency, cryptocurrency doesn’t have real-world institutions that keep and protect your money. And storing it on the crypto exchange may not be a good idea, especially with incidences of exchanges being hacked or turning out to be a scam. Thankfully, innovative people have come up with brilliant ideas to enable crypto users store their coins safely.

In this article, we’ll discuss what crypto wallets are, types of crypto wallets, and what you should consider before investing in one, and more.

What Is A Cryptocurrency Wallet?

A cryptocurrency wallet is a device, a physical medium, or a software program that stores private and public keys and allows users to transfer, receive, or spend their cryptocurrency. You don’t walk around holding your fiat money, do you? You store it in a bank or some type of wallet to protect it. That’s the same principle with crypto wallets. 

How Do Cryptocurrency wallets Work?

Many people don’t understand how cryptocurrency wallets work mainly because they try to associate them with traditional wallets. Unlike “real world” wallets, crypto wallets don’t store crypto ‘money.’ In fact, cryptocurrencies are not stored in any physical shape or form, so they can’t technically be stored in any single location. What exists is records of transactions stored in a public ledger or – the blockchain.

What crypto wallets store is the public and private keys- which are used to access your public cryptocurrency address and transaction signatures.

Both of these keys are just a combination of random numbers and letters. To better understand public and private keys, we can compare them to our bank account. The public key is like your bank account number – people who know it can send you money. But the private key is like your pin code or password – you’re the only one who knows it. The same logic applies to crypto wallets – people can send you cryptocurrencies, but you will need to use your passcode to access it.  

When someone sends you, let’s say, Bitcoin, they are essentially transferring ownership of the coins to your wallet’s address.

For you to access those coins and spend, store or transfer them to somebody else, your wallet’s private key should be compatible with the public address the coins are assigned to. If the two keys match, the balance in your wallet increases, while the sender’s decreases. There is no real exchange of the currency. The transaction exists in the form of “a transaction on the public ledger” and a change in the balance of both parties.

What are the Types of Cryptocurrency Wallets?

There are several types of crypto wallets that enable you to store and access your crypto coins. ‘Type’ here refers to the medium that the wallet is built on. This could be software, hardware, or paper. Software wallets can be on desktop, web, or mobile

☑️Desktop Wallets: These wallets are usually downloaded and installed on your computer. From then on, they are only accessible from that particular computer. By broad definition, desktop wallets provide more security than their online and mobile counterparts because they don’t rely on third parties for data. However, they are vulnerable to hackers or malware. But these wallets are a good solution for traders of small crypto amounts.

☑️Web Wallets: These wallets are cloud-based and store your private keys on a server. They can be accessed from any internet-enabled device from any location. They are controlled by a third party, too, which renders them susceptible to hacking and theft.  

Different web wallet providers provide different features, some of which can link to mobile and desktop features and sync your addresses across your devices.

☑️Mobile Wallets: These wallets run as an app on your phone. They are great solutions for active users who interact with their crypto coins often. They can be used to pay for goods at e-stores or physical stores by allowing you to scan a QR code.

Since any crypto user requires access to the blockchain network – which is large enough, mobile wallets use a simpler verification technology. This means they utilize small subsections of the blockchain by relying on certain trusted nodes to ensure they get the correct information.

While mobile wallets provide much more convenience, they are also more prone to hacking. And if someone gains entry to your phone, you could lose control of your funds.

☑️Hardware Wallet: these wallets store your private keys on a hardware device like a USB. Hardware wallets are by far the most secure of any wallet because they are immune from malware attacks, hacking, and funds cannot be transferred out of the device in plaintext. Some providers even offer hardware wallets with a screen that can verify and display important details, like a recovery phrase and details of the transaction you wish to make.

Depending on the provider, hardware wallets can be compatible with several web interfaces and support several currencies. You can easily make a transaction by simply plugging the device to an internet-enabled device, enter your passcode, and carrying out your transaction.

☑️Paper Wallet: These wallets are essentially printouts containing a public and private key. They are usually printed as QR codes, meaning you can quickly scan them and transfer them to a software wallet to carry out a transaction. This process is known as ‘sweeping’ and can also involve manually entering the keys on the device. A paper wallet can also be a piece of software that can generate the keys, which are then printed. 

Just like hardware wallets, paper wallets are immune to hacking and malware attacks. Still, you need to take certain precautions, like ensuring no one is watching you when you’re generating a paper wallet and using a printer that is not connected to the internet. Also, you need to keep your paper wallet in a dry and safe place to avoid exposure to water and wear and tear. You could even keep it in a sealed plastic bag or laminate it and store it in a safety deposit box.

How Secure Are Crypto Wallets?

The level of security of a wallet depends on its type and the service provider. Web-based wallets are more vulnerable since hackers could gain access and steal your coins. On the other hand, offline wallets are safer because they are not connected to the internet and don’t rely on a third party. 

The most important thing to remember is regardless of the wallet you’re using, whether online or offline based, your private key is what matters. You lose the private key, you lose your funds. Bear in mind that cryptocurrency transactions are irreversible, so utmost care is necessary. 

That said, here are some measures you can take to secure your online wallet: 

☑️Back up your wallet. This simply means don’t store everything online. Store only small, daily-use amounts online. Store the rest away in a highly secure environment, like a paper or hardware wallet. Offline storage will ensure your currency is safe in case of computer failure or virus attacks. 

☑️Update software. Hackers are usually smart people, and they keep devising new ways to infiltrate security software. So what do you do? You keep up with them. Ensure your software has the latest security enforcements. This applies to both your wallet software and computer, or mobile software. 

☑️Add layers of security. When it comes to online wallets, the more the security layers, the safer they are. This can mean setting long and complicated passwords. Use wallets that enable multi-factor authentication or other extra pin code requirements. You could also choose wallets that offer multi-signature transactions – meaning another user or users must approve before any transaction takes place. 

Can You Store All Your Cryptocurrencies In A Single Wallet? 

Some wallet providers design wallets dedicated to the storage of only type of cryptocurrency. For instance, Armory and Copay are designed to store only Bitcoin. But other providers allow you to keep a variety of cryptocurrencies. Instead of purchasing a wallet that only supports one currency, you may find it more convenient to purchase or signup one that allows you to store, access, and spend your coins from the same location.

Are Crypto Wallets Anonymous? 

Just like how your identity on a cryptocurrency blockchain is pseudonymous, i.e., recognizable by your public address, so are crypto-wallets. Your actual identity will not be there, but your wallet address could be traced back to you.

In addition, to prevent illegal use of cryptos, most exchanges will require your full identity – which means they know your identity is linked to your wallet transactions. 

Which Is The Best Cryptocurrency Wallet?

New crypto wallets are always being introduced. Your decision to pick a specific crypto wallet depends on how you intend to use it. Ask yourself these questions:

Do you need your cryptos for everyday use or for holding as an investment?

Do you need to access your wallet from anywhere or just at home?

Do you plan to use and/or trade several currencies or just one?

What is the security track record of your considered wallet?

What is the reputation of the manufacturer?  

With that, here are some of the tried and tested crypto wallets in the market: Atomic Wallet, Ledger Nano, Trezor, Armory, Mycelium, Bread Wallet, Copay, Electrum, Exodus, and Jaxx. 

Conclusion 

By now, you should have a pretty good idea of what a wallet is, how it works, and probably identified your preferred wallet choice. Remember, the type of wallet you choose should respond to your needs – be it ease of transfer or security from hacking attacks.

Categories
Crypto Guides

Knowing About the EOS Cryptocurrency & Its Blockchain

Introduction

EOS is the native cryptocurrency of the EOS blockchain. EOS blockchain is a decentralized open-source platform built to support the development of decentralized apps (DApps) with core functionalities helping to develop industrial-scale applications.

The EOS blockchain platform was announced its white paper in 2017 by a private company called block.one. The platform came into the market as an open-source platform in June 2018. The EOS is informally called the ‘Ethereum Killer’ in the crypto community. That is because this platform offers almost all the features of the original Ethereum platform but with a lot of improvements. These improvements enable DApp developers to build industrial level applications with ease.

Objective

While there are many blockchain platforms in action now, we can say each one has its unique features suitable to different industries in the market. Each platform is developed to overcome the shortcomings of its predecessor. EOS platform has been introduced to improve functionalities offered by Bitcoin and Ethereum platforms. EOS whitepaper says it is possible to run 1000 transactions per second during the initial stages, and later it aims to run a million transactions per second. Thus enabling industrial level applications to be run on the platform without scaling issues. Moreover, the platform has made transaction fees-free, making people choose EOS over other cryptos.

Consensus

So how does the EOS work to hit a million transactions per second? EOS uses the Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) as its consensus algorithm. There will be only 21 block producing nodes in the network. These blocking producing nodes are chosen by the people in the network who hold EOS cryptocurrency on a voting process, which happens continuously. Thus, maintaining the integrity of the users in the system is of utmost importance to the block producing nodes. Hence the transaction should be validated by only these 21 nodes to get confirmed in a block, and it is a relatively straightforward process. The block producing nodes are rewarded with EOS for validating the nodes.

EOS ICO

To ensure the native currency of the platform (EOS) is widely available, a billion coins were sold on the Ethereum platform as ERC 20 tokens. The ICO was held for an entire year. 10% of these tokens are reserved for Block.one, the founding company. EOS raised a record amount of $4 billion in its ICO, although the working product wasn’t available in the market then.

Market Cap

EOS stands at seventh place in the crypto world with close to $3 Billion in value. The price of each coin is $3.25 as of 30/10/2019. The 24-hour trading volume is around $2.5 billion, with 938 Million coins circulating in the market.

Price History

EOS began trading with a price of $1.03 in July 2017. The coin didn’t get much attention for the first four months, and the price started slumping. By November 2017, it was trading at $1.21, and by January 2018, it is traded at $18.06. Then from a peak of $18.06, it fell to $4.08 by March 2019. It slowly increased and decreased from then without a very drastic change, and the price as on 30th October 2019 is $3.25.

Conclusion

There has been a lot of negative talk about EOS, but crypto enthusiasts see high potential in the EOS platform because of the promising features it offers. Applications can be written in any language on EOS, unlike the Ethereum platform, which allows only its native programming language, Solidity. Hence not only crypto enthusiasts but also industry experts believe that the EOS platform is revolutionary due to its scaling and flexibility options.

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Nov 4 – UK says Cryptocurrencies are not Money

The cryptocurrency market had another pretty slow weekend when looking at the price movement. Major cryptocurrencies’ volume is dropping each day. The volume drop did not translate into a price drop in most cases. If we take a look at the past 24 hours, most cryptocurrencies ended up being in the slight red, but a good minority did end up in the green. Bitcoin went down 1.98%, and it is now trading at $9,134. Ethereum lost 1.86%, while XRP lost 1.84%.

Out of the top100 cryptocurrencies by market cap, the biggest gainer is ILCoin, with 37.92% daily gain followed by Decred’s 17.29 and Chiliz’s 12.59% gain. The biggest loser of the day was Bytecoin, which lost 10.99% of its value.

Bitcoin’s dominance has stayed at almost the same level that it was on Friday. Its dominance now sits at 67.04%.

Cryptocurrencies ended up being in the slight red in the past 24 hours, which resulted in a slight drop in market capitalization of the whole asset class. It now has a market capitalization of $246.75 billion, which represents a $3.41 billion decrease when compared to the previous day.

What happened in the past 24 hours

The United Kingdom’s tax, payments, and customs authority, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), updated its guidelines on crypto taxation. The update is aimed towards both businesses and individuals.

HMRC released tax guidance updates that clarify on how businesses and individuals taxation will work when it comes to cryptocurrency. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs stated that it does not consider any form of cryprocurrency (at the moment) to be currency.

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Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s price is in a very interesting spot at the moment. It currently hovers around the $9,140 point, right above its $9,110 line of support. The interesting part is that its price on the daily chart is creating a small triangle pattern, which is extremely close to breaking. Bitcoin’s continous volume reduction is also an indicator of a “calm before the storm”.  It is more probable that the price will break downwards, but the upswing is not excluded either.


As mentioned before, Bitcoin’s RSI is slowly dropping. Its volume is also dropping day by day.

Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $9,580                                          1: $8,820

2: $9,740                                          2: $8,640


Ethereum

Ethereum is having a hard time moving away from its immediate support and resistance lines. It spent another day in between its $178.6 support line and $185 resistance line, with no intention of going upwards or downwards. Ethereum’s volume, like Bitcoin’s, is slowly reducing. It is most likely that, if it doesn’t make a move itself, it will follow Bitcoin’s initiative in any direction. Ethereum is currently trading at $181.5.


Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $185                                             1: $178.6

2: $193.5                                          2: $167.8

3: $198                                             3: $163.5


XRP

As seen in the previous days, XRP has finally given up on pushing its price up to follow the extremely steep upward-facing trend line. Lack of volume continued throughout the weekend. XRP is currently creating a doji candle on a daily time frame, which may indicate a small trend-reversal to the upside. XRP’s price remained stable over the past 24 hours, and it is now sitting at $0.291.


XRP’s volume and RSI value have stabilized for the duration of the weekend. However, many indicators suggest that XRP will soon make a move, which will impact both volume and RSI.

Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $0.31                                            1: $0.285

2: $0.325                                          2: $0.266 (major support)

3: $0.333                                          3: $0.245

Categories
Crypto Guides

Learning The Fundamentals Of ‘Tether’ – The Stable Cryptocurrency!

Introduction

Tether is a cryptocurrency founded in 2015, and it was initially known as ‘Realcoin.’ Tether tokens are issued by Tether Limited, a company based in the British Virgin Islands as per the New York Times. The official website says the company is incorporated in Hong Kong, with offices in the US. This company is associated with the Bitfinex, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange, which is also one of the biggest in the world. Many members who are on the board of Tether Limited are associated with Bitfinex exchange, as well.

Objective

The value of any cryptocurrency is volatile. We can see the steep increases and decreases in the value of any crypto within a matter of days or hours, as well. We know that these Cryptocurrencies offer a wide range of features that fiat currencies don’t assure.  Therefore, Tether was designed as a stable coin promising the stability of fiat currency with the features of a cryptocurrency as well. Tether is meant to be backed one for one by some of the major fiat currencies like USD, Euro, JPY, etc. If we take the example of USD, the value of each Tether is always one dollar (USDT). For every one tether created, one US dollar is stored as a reserve.

Importance of Tether in the crypto world

Many crypto exchanges across the globe find it extremely difficult to work with traditional banks. The exchanges find it challenging to store USD or any conventional fiat currency as reserves for the payments. Hence major crypto exchanges like Bitfinex hold clients balance in Tether rather than in USD. This means, if the clients hold any money in the exchange and don’t have any open positions, that money is held as Tether in the exchange. It is converted into USD only when the client wants to redeem the cash. Hence Tether offers to be a stable alternative for USD for the crypto exchanges across the world.

Market Cap

Tether is in the fifth position in terms of market cap in the crypto world with a value of more than $4 billion. The price of each Tether is stable and is one dollar or Euro, etc. as described above. The average 24-hour trading volume is just above $43 billion, while the circulating supply is around $4.1 billion in the market as on 1st Nov 2019.

Controversies

Tether has a fair share of controversies in its kitty. As the central banks hold the appropriate amount of gold reserves equivalent to the new currency issued in the market, Tether Limited holds the equivalent amount of US Dollars in its reserve for the Tether coins circulated in the market. Lately, there are claims that the company doesn’t hold enough reserves in USD, claiming Tether Ltd haven’t been too transparent with the audits as to where and how much of the reserves have been stored in different places.

The December 2017 Bitcoin price surge is also attributed to be the work of the Tether limited. It is alleged that the company has created Tether coins out of thin air and bought Bitcoin at a lower price, eventually attributing the price surge of the currency. Thus, there are growing fears in the crypto market that if there are no adequate reserves of USD backing the Tether, the value of the coin should be determined by the market rather than maintaining it stable. Despite all these controversies, this cryptocurrency is still one of the most traded ones in the crypto space because of its stability factor.

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic

The Mess That is Telegram’s $1.7 Billion Token Sale

The unexpected growth and ultimate dominance of messaging apps in the tech world – prime examples being WhatsApp, Facebook messenger, Viber, Telegram, and WeChat – has been phenomenal. Everyone who bought into the craze early enough will probably retire richer than they ever imagined.

Combine this staggering success with the emergence of blockchain technology, in particular, cryptocurrency, and you have a combination that no investment expert will advise against. If you doubt it, ask yourself why Facebook is so adamantly pursuing the Libra – or why a simple search for messaging brings up crypto as a related search.

Considering how privacy-focused the world of crypto is, and seeing how fast the crypto industry is evolving to revolutionize every other industry, it was only a matter of time before it catches up with messaging. This is where Telegram’s messaging app rules.

Telegram may not be the top messaging app in the world by number of users, but it ranks highly. This is largely because of its speed and history of focus on user security and privacy. The app’s enhanced privacy protection is one of the top reasons why it has grown from obscurity to having over 200 million active users in just over five years.

It is an open secret that Telegram enjoys fanatic following and loyalty in the crypto world, and it is for this reason that the company was able to raise over $1.7 billion from private token sales as it prepared to launch its ICO.

Telegram Open Network’s breakthrough private sales

Telegram’s most recent and most controversial endeavor has been the launch of its own token, the Gram or Telegram Open Network (TON). The third-generation blockchain token that promised ‘superior capabilities’ was an instant hit, with demand hitting the roof even before it was official. Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov, launched the ambitious TON project as a future payment option that would be used outside the global regulatory system, a lot like Facebook’s Libra would have.

TON was supposed to have a record-breaking ICO that would see them develop a blockchain-based one-of-a-kind decentralized messaging internet. In an industry with over 2.5 billion users already and projected to have about 3 billion by the end of 2022, their idea for a new communication platform that is independent from traditional bottlenecks and detractors was grand.

The tightly controlled process the company used to raise funds ended in disarray as its earliest backers sold their tokens too early, earning good profits in the process. While the company initially aimed to raise $1.2 billion through invite-only private sales and public offerings, it extended its target to $1.7 billion, which it raised from private backers before the public sale was canceled altogether.

The trouble with SEC

There is a universal disdain from governments and regulatory bodies for companies and technologies that are outside their reach. This explains why Telegram is always under scrutiny, and unnecessary controversies world over. Shortly after the company raised the funds it needed to bankroll the TON, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) abruptly declared that the token offering was illegal.

Telegram had raised the entire $1.7 billion by selling the tokens to qualified investors in two rounds. The company had submitted a Form D, required when selling securities without registering with the SEC, back in February 2018. However, SEC found fault in the process in that qualified buyers of Gram tokens resold their assets in violation of the Form D exemption.

The regulator quickly obtained a court order to stop Telegram from distributing the Gram and outlawing trading in it in the United States. Hearing for the case is scheduled for February 2020.

What does this mean for the buyers, the public with interest in the Gram, and, more importantly, for Telegram?

While the SEC has the authority to stop the sale of Telegram’s tokens in the US, there is little it can do to prevent it from being traded openly in the international market. The whole point of Telegram launching its own token was to beat such regulatory bottlenecks and launch a genuinely open asset that the entire world can use with minimal interference from the bureaucrats. However, the influence of the SEC should not be underestimated, considering how early in its stages of conception, the Gram is.

The move by the SEC has had multiple adverse effects on the investors of TON:

☑️ First, they have been forced to choose between making a guaranteed 23% loss on their investment on the token, or sitting tight and waiting (hoping for) the token’s official launch in April 2020.

☑️ Public investors who bought the TON at $4 will be under pressure to sell it off along with the first and second round private investors who bought it at $0.37 and $1.37, respectively.

☑️ The move by the SEC may have set a precedent that will deter the Gram, or any other such blockchain tokens, from ever successfully raising funds in the US.

Why does the Gram stand out?

There are thousands of crypto tokens in use and being traded in the US today. Despite the TON being launched by a popular messaging company with a strong foundation, what makes it so unique as to attract the wrath of SEC?

In our view, Telegram’s token has three major strengths that makes it stand out:

☑️ Telegram’s TON promises lightning transaction speed – the kind that no other blockchain platform is capable of. It is estimated that TON’s third-generation blockchain platform will be capable of executing over 10,000 transactions every second, a speed which even Ethereum is not capable of.

☑️ Great infrastructure: Telegram promises to deploy massive storage and processing power to the decentralization of TON’s files. The already-popular messenger app will be an added advantage for quick and easier user onboarding.

☑️ The platform is already popular and trusted. Telegram already has over 200,000 loyal and informed users and a brand that sells itself. The Gram does not need to start from scratch, and neither does it have a baggage of distrust like Facebook’s Libra.

There is a vast potential for growth and prosperity of the Gram, despite the mess with the SEC. Early investors have proven that the company has the backing of the crypto world, and the company has shown that it has the tech to deliver on its promises. It is unclear what the way forward is for the Gram, but for now, we just wait.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What Can You Buy With Crypto Currencies?

Cryptocurrencies have come a long way. In the not-too-distant past, most people used crypto mainly for speculation, and it is easy to see why. There were countless reports of people who had become overnight millionaires as a result of investing in crypto. Still, such rosy stories were quickly erased from people’s minds when the very opposite started happening. The group that invested after the first windfall was quickly impoverished by making belated and ill-advised decisions. With many and frequent bubbles, the crypto market was beginning to look like a graveyard, but things have since acquired a reasonable measure of stability.

Fast forward to 2019! While speculation was the overriding factor making people invest in crypto, the modern user of cryptocurrencies has other and even more important considerations. People want to know where and how easily they can spend their cryptocurrencies. That is why you’ll find that many online retailers have readily embraced crypto, and there are countless online stores where these currencies are readily accepted. 

One of the leading online retailers that have been accepting cryptocurrencies for a long time is Overstock, whose payments are processed using the third party site Coinbase. Other well-known sites include eGifter, a website that sells online cards, and Fancy.com.

Even when online retailers do not have an in-house system that allows them to accept cryptocurrencies, it is now possible for almost any kind of retailer to make this possible. There are plenty of platforms and apps that make it possible for retailers to accept crypto payments, and some of the leading ones include Square and Shopify. The latter, for instance, has a global clientele and has hundreds of thousands of online merchants using its software platform. This basically means that you are likely to get any product or service from an online seller as long as the business uses the Shopify software. Moreover, where most other platforms are limited to Bitcoin, Shopify makes it possible for merchants to accept payments in a host of other cryptocurrencies.

You Can Still Use Crypto Even When Retailer Site Doesn’t Expressly Say So

Any mention of online shopping must bring the giant retailer, Amazon, to mind, and you must wonder whether it is possible to make purchases using cryptocurrencies. While Amazon does not allow for purchases using cryptocurrencies, you can make an indirect payment using Purse.io. This ability to make use of cryptocurrencies even when the retailer site does not expressly say so is not limited to Amazon.

At the end of the day, what really matters is where you have stored your cryptocurrency, and there are various ways in which you can make the storage to make your shopping hassle-free. If you are in the habit of shopping using your debit card, for example, you have the ability to link your cryptocurrency to a debit card. These cards are usually backed by the leading card companies such as MasterCard, and any location accepting MasterCard will make it possible for you to use the cryptocurrency.

Where Speed and Privacy Are Of the Essence

Players in the hospitality industry were among the first people to embrace the use of cryptocurrencies, and it is easy to see why. In a world where people constantly feel that their privacy is being intruded upon, joining the crypto world ensures, among other things, that the individual’s privacy is protected. That is why one of the leading travel booking companies, Expedia, was one of the first to embrace this kind of currency.

You can, therefore, book for your flight and accommodations on the site using cryptocurrency, thus making the entire travel experience seamless. Another renowned travel site that accepts cryptocurrency is bitcoin.travel. On the site, you can pay for your entire package from travel to accommodation and even attractions at the destination using bitcoins. Other players offering similar services and accepting cryptocurrencies are Travala, Future Travel, and CheapAir.

When it comes to speed of execution, paying using cryptocurrencies eliminates most of the hurdles that were prevalent when non-digital payment methods were used. That is why you’ll find that some of the companies that have embraced crypto include AT&T, one of the leading global carriers. And as if to say that this might be the favorite way to make payments now and in the future, the ever-innovative Virgin Group, through its subsidiary, Virgin Galactic (the company that was expressly created to offer space travel) also accepts payments via cryptocurrencies.

The speed of execution is also what makes payments via cryptocurrencies a favorite for professionals in IT. Many domain creators such as NameCheap (which sells domains) accept crypto. In addition, a leading online retailer of computer hardware, NewEgg, also accepts bitcoin payments, as does the tech giant Microsoft.

Charities and Non-Profits

In addition to the many merchants accepting cryptocurrencies, there are also many charities and non-profits to which you can make a donation using these currencies. One of the most well-known charities that accept such donations is Save the Children, which tries to provide for the basic needs of impoverished children globally. And if you have been enjoying the services provided by Wikipedia and wish to make a donation, you can easily do so using bitcoin.

Crypto Is All-Encompassing

When it comes to cryptocurrency usage in 2019, perhaps the real question should be what you cannot buy rather than what you can buy using cryptocurrencies. Whether you want to pay for your pizza or shop online for your favorite coffee, buy a limo, or even pet food, the chances are that there’s a retailer ready and willing to accept bitcoin or some other cryptocurrency. The acceptance of cryptocurrencies is also global, and that is why you’ll find that on top of online stores, many brick and mortar stores around the world accept cryptocurrencies.

Of course, there’s much that needs to happen to make cryptocurrencies the ideal way to shop. And this will only occur when more companies start accepting cryptocurrencies received directly from the buyer rather than the current trend where most merchants only accept payments made via debit cards or payment processors. When all is said and done, you can buy almost anything using one or other cryptocurrencies.

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Nov 1 – China warning against crypto-speculation, Bitcoin crossing a major milestone

The cryptocurrency market had yet another day of slight decline while consolidating at the same price levels. Major cryptocurrencies are losing volume each day, which also translates in slight drops in price. Most cryptocurrencies ended up being in the slight red. Bitcoin went down 0.01%, and it is now trading at $9,107. Ethereum lost 0.81%, while XRP lost 0.62%.

Out of the top100 cryptocurrencies by market cap, the biggest gainer is Thunder token, with 63.77% daily gain followed by Lambda’s 27.32 and WINk’s 20.72% gain. The biggest loser of the day was Noah Coin, which lost 55.43% of its value.

Bitcoin’s dominance has increased slightly over the past 24 hours because many cryptocurrencies lost a bit more value than Bitcoin. Its dominance now sits at 67.4%, which represents a 0.2% gain when compared to its position 24 hours ago.

Cryptocurrencies ended up being mostly in the red in the past 24 hours. The industry’s market capitalization fell slightly when compared to yesterday’s value. It now has a market capitalization of $244.6 billion, which represents a $1.3 billion decrease when compared to the previous day.

What happened in the past 24 hours

Bitcoin has reached $1 billion in cumulative transaction fees right on the day of its “birthday” on Oct 31. It has been confirmed that more than 200,000 Bitcoin has now been paid in transaction fees since its launch in 2009.

After China announced that it is accepting cryptocurrencies as a technology worth looking at and deciding to even creating their own, they are calling for caution when it comes to crypto investments.  People’s Daily, a newspaper controlled by the Communist Party of China, announced that:

“The rise of blockchain technology was accompanied by that of cryptocurrencies, but innovation in blockchain technology does not mean we should speculate in virtual currencies.”

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Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s price is exactly where it was 24 hours. It currently hovers around the 9,110 point and hanging on a thread which is line of support. Bitcoin is continuing to struggle with the reduced upward momentum and currently has higher percentage of dropping in price. With declining volume and dropping RSI, if Bitcoin falls too far under the area of support at which it stands now, we can expect a downward move to face $8,800 levels.


As mentioned before, Bitcoin’s RSI is slowly dropping, but a bit slower than it did yesterday. It now stands at 45. Bitcoin’s volume is also dropping day by day.

Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $9,580                                          1: $8,820

2: $9,740                                          2: $8,640


Ethereum

Ethereum has spent another day in between its $178.6 support line and $185 resistance line. The past day went without any attempts of price movement to the upside or downside. Ethereum is in a much safer space than Bitcoin as it is not fighting a support line that could decide its short-term future. However, as these two cryptocurrencies are extremely correlated, Bitcoin’s price drop could result in Ethereum’s price drop without any fundamental or technical indicators suggesting that it should happen.


Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $185                                             1: $178.6

2: $193.5                                          2: $167.8

3: $198                                             3: $163.5


XRP

XRP has finally given up on pushing its price up to follow the extremely steep upward-facing trend line. Lack of volume and therefore buying pressure made it impossible to follow the path of this line. XRP’s price remained pretty stable over the past 24 hours, and it is now sitting at $0.292.


XRP’s volume and RSI value seem to be dropping today, unlike yesterday, which was remarkably stable for XRP when it comes to these indicators.

Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $0.31                                            1: $0.285

2: $0.325                                          2: $0.266 (major support)

3: $0.333                                          3: $0.245

 

 

 

 

Categories
Crypto Guides

Understanding The Basics Of Binance Coin

Introduction

For crypto enthusiasts, Binance is a well-known word as it is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges. The word Binance is a portmanteau of Binary and Finance. Binance coin was initially launched on the Ethereum platform and later was moved on to the Binance’s proprietary blockchain (Binance Chain).

Binance was founded by its CEO Changpeng Zhao who is known as CZ in the world of cryptocurrency, with co-founder & CTO Roger Wang.

Objective

The objective of the Binance coin creation was to serve as a medium for transaction fees, which includes trading fees, exchange fees, and listing fees on the Binance exchange. Just like Ether fuels the Ethereum blockchain platform, Binance coin fuels the Binance exchange. Like any other cryptocurrency, this coin can be traded as well in many of the cryptocurrency exchanges. Binance initially had its headquarters in China, and then in Japan, because of local government regulations. Finally, it had to move its headquarters to Malta.

Binance Coin ICO

Binance coin had its Initial Coin Offering from June 14th to June 27th in 2017. Before the  ICO happened, the network minted a total of 200 million tokens. 50% of the total tokens mined (100 million) were reserved for the ICO, and they raised approximately $15 million. The funds raised are used in three different ways; 35% of the funds raised were used to build and maintain the platform. 50% of the funds were used for branding and marketing the platform. The remaining 15% are reserved for emergency contingencies.

Fee model of the exchange

As mentioned earlier, in Binance exchange, BNB acts as a token for transaction fees. There is a benefit for using BNB token for transaction fees in the exchange. At present, Binance charges 0.1% on each trade, but if we use BNB token for transacting, the exchange offers a discount. For the first year, the concession stands at 50%, and from there on, it will be halved till the 4th year. That means, for the second year the discount would be at 25%, the third year it is 12.5% and 6.75% for the fourth year. From the fifth year onwards there wouldn’t be any discounts. Hence, there are high chances of the coin value to get depreciated as the discount decreases for each passing year. Therefore to combat the depreciation, Binance plans to burn 50% of its coins, i.e., a total of 100 million coins overtime to stabilize the currency.

Consensus 

Binance Chain uses the Tendermint Byzantine fault tolerance (BFT) consensus mechanism. The network uses different types of nodes in the system to validate and broadcast the transactions to other nodes. Validator nodes, as the name suggests, validate the transactions in the network. Witness nodes act as a witness for the consensus process and broadcast transactions to all the nodes involved in the network. Finally, the accelerator nodes are owned by the organization to speed up the validation process.

Market Cap

Binance coin stands in eighth place in terms of market cap with a value of approximately 3 billion dollars. Each coin is traded at $19.91 as of 28/10/2019. The 24-hour trading volume is $353 million, while a total of 155 million BNB’s are available in the market as of now.

Conclusion

Binance coin is one of the most innovative cryptos out there in terms of its consensus and usage. As discussed, the founders plan to burn 50% of their coins to stabilize the value of the currency. 20% of the profits are to be burnt every quarter, eventually burning 100 million of the existing tokens. By looking at the history of the coin, the industry experts believe that the currency will sustain the market and emerge as one of the leading cryptocurrencies due to its strong backing and security.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Blockchain – Public, Distributed, Global Ledgers

You have probably already heard the term ‘Blockchain’ in the context of a new technological innovation. You would not be wrong to compare this advancement with other significant innovations such as the Internet because of its far and wide-reaching applications. What makes it so unique?

Consider an online Google document. When you create a document and share it with two other people, the original document remains, but everyone has access to it. The document is considered ‘decentralized’ since it can be accessed and modified by multiple people at the same time. The best part about such an online document is that everyone sees all the changes (and can even track them) when they are made, making it very transparent.

While blockchain is a tad more complicated technology than a Google doc, this analogy lays bare three vital features of blockchain:

☑️It is a digital record of events (transactions) that is distributed among many people. It is not copied or transferred copies.

☑️It is decentralized. This means that multiple individuals have real-time access to the asset and is not ‘owned’ or ‘controlled’ by a single entity or person.

☑️It is transparent. Being a ledger, all the people with access to it can trust the document since all the changes are preserved when made. 

So, what is blockchain?

Blockchain is best described as a distributed database. It is a storage technology where a digital ledger of transactions are stored in groups of transactions or sequence of blocks, chained together and distributed among many users in the network. This is where the term ‘blockchain’ originates.

Because blockchain is a way to keep records of items stored in millions of computers all over the world, it is essential to understand that it is not a device or currency. Think of it as an incorruptible ledger of transactions that are connected to each other such that one cannot be altered without requiring the alteration of all the other linked records.

Blockchain is undeniably an ingenious invention that is already conquering every aspect of modern human life – almost as much as electricity and the Internet did. This technology was the brainchild of one or a group of individuals known by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. To this day, the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto is still unknown.

Satoshi Nakamoto introduced blockchain to the world sometime in 2009 with the publication of the Bitcoin whitepaper. This innovation was largely inspired by the 2007/8 financial crisis, whose primary cause was the manipulation of the property market by financial banks. Bitcoin emerged as a currency alternative that would be free from manipulation, devaluation, taxation, or control by a central body. However, blockchain, the technology on which it runs, has since then evolved into something much more significant than just money and touching on almost every industry.

The humble beginnings of Blockchain

Contrary to what most people believe today, blockchain technology did not just arise out of nothingness with the publication of the Bitcoin whitepaper in 2008. Before it found its application in cryptocurrency, blockchain was a concept in computer science that had been around since 1979. In particular, it was theorized for use, in its primitive form, in the domains of data structures and cryptography.

With the invention of the hash tree by Ralph Merkle, patented as the Merkle tree in 1979, the first form of blockchain was already in practical use. Back then, the hash tree was used to handle and to verify data transferred between computer systems in peer-to-peer networks. The hash tree proved useful in validating data and ensuring the integrity of the data in the receiving system. This technology also ensured that false data was not transmitted and that users could prove the integrity of information shared using these early computers.

By 1991, the Merkle tree had evolved enough to create a chain of secured blocks of information. The series of data records, designed to be connected to previous blocks in the series, now contained a history of all the chains in the tree. With this addition, blockchain was born.

When Satoshi Nakamoto conceptualized the idea of a distributed blockchain that contained a secure history of all the data exchanged in the network, it gave rise to a world of possibilities that resulted in the invention of Bitcoin. What made this possible was that the security and transparency of transactions in the peer-to-peer network could be timestamped, and each transaction could be verified over the internet. The best part of the new technology was that it could be managed autonomously, and no single entity could claim absolute authority.

But what makes blockchain special?

Blockchain is a string of secured data that cannot be controlled by a single authority. The shared, immutable ledger that the connected chains of data forms has industry-disrupting capabilities for the simple reason that it is an ideal and practical democratized system.

While the information on this system is available for everyone to see and verify authenticity, it is almost impossible to alter, hence trusted. When blockchain is applied to any industry, it brings this nature of transparency with it, making it easy for countless individuals to be involved in it while maintaining accountability for every action or activity on the ledger.

Blockchain was first demonstrated to be practical and effective with the release of the Bitcoin Whitepaper, and it was quickly applied in digital currency. Soon after, the tech community found a lot many useful and practical uses of blockchain, and many more were theorized not so long later. One of the top features of blockchain that stood out almost immediately was that transactions carried out on the network carried no cost whatsoever. However, infrastructural investment was necessary to make it functional.

Benefits of global distributed ledgers

Consider the blocks of information on the blockchain as collections of data, much like records of financial accounts on a ledger. The chain, with all its benefits, is a very simple yet ingenious way to pass the data from one point to another in a secure and verifiable manner. The sender initiates the transaction, which is verified by hundreds, thousands, or even millions of computers that are part of the network.

When a block of transactions is verified, it is added to the chain and safely stored on the network, with a copy being stored on every computer on the network. The copy of the transaction will not only be unique in the record, but also in the history of records within the chain. This means that for a party on the network to alter or falsify the record, they would have to alter all the records in the chain sitting on all the computers on the network at the same time. This is almost impossible because it would take a lot of resources.

Bitcoin was a hugely successful and first virtual currency running on the oldest blockchain network because this format of storing information and conducting transactions could be trusted by all the parties in the network.

In summation, blockchain’s core benefits that make it ideal for use in cryptocurrency are:

☑️Efficiency and speed: Transactions on a blockchain can be completed much faster and more efficiently compared to the paper-heavy traditional processes that often involve a third-party. Considering that record keeping on a blockchain system is carried out on a single digital ledger available in real-time to all the peers in the network, clearing and settlement are super fast.

☑️Enhanced security: Before being recorded, transactions on a blockchain must be agreed upon aforehand. Once approved, transactions are encrypted and linked with previous and next transactions in a way that makes them tamper-proof. This is what makes blockchain ideal for use in any industry where the protection of sensitive data is crucial – from governance and financial services to healthcare and manufacturing.

☑️Great transparency: Since blockchain is essentially a digital ledger technology where all participants keep a copy of all ‘documentation,’ the data on it is not only alter-proof but also consistent and transparent. Data and transactions carried out in a transparent manner can be trusted by anyone who has access to it and can verify authenticity.

☑️Better traceability: Companies that deal in products that are manufactured and traded in complex supply chains often have a hard time tracing items in the market back to their origins to verify authenticity. With blockchain, each product can carry with it a history of transaction data that can go a long way in preventing fraud. To make this practical, manufacturers and distributors would need to record exchanges of the goods on a blockchain in such a way that an audit trail can show every stop and change of hand a product underwent.

☑️Lower costs of transactions: Every business needs to cut the costs of transactions as much as they can to increase their profits. Businesses that adopt distributed ledgers in their operations will need fewer third-parties and middlemen to make guarantees or carry out transactions since this technology builds trust between trading partners. They just need to trust the data on the blockchain to minimize the need to review every trading process or documentation.

The extent of blockchain disruption today

Make no mistake about this: blockchain is a very disruptive technology that is already revolutionizing how the world works – even if you do not ‘feel’ it yet. While you may have already heard of how it is shifting the way we use the internet and how we view money, the global economy is quickly adapting to inevitable takeover by the digitization of assets.

The fundamental shift from the present-day Internet of information to the age of distributed data as assets is a clear sign that the new global economy with no intermediaries is happening, and nobody – not even the biggest banks and multinational tech companies making money off data – can stop it.

Blockchain technology was originally developed to help solve the various economic challenges facing the financial industry. But it has proven that it can achieve much more.

It can be programmed to record and store virtually any other form of data in any industry.

As a result, we have seen the development of different types of Blockchain, each of which is aimed at helping solve more than just financial challenges. Ethereum, for instance, has smart contracts and many other applications, which we will explain later.

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Oct 31 – China’s Official Cryptocurrency, XRP’s Daily Transactions Through the Roof!

The cryptocurrency market had a slow day price-wise, which might not be a bad thing. Most of the cryptocurrencies’ prices remained near yesterday’s levels even though their volume is slowly dropping. The past 24 hours were quite uneventful as far as the price of top cryptocurrencies is concerned. Most cryptocurrencies ended up being in the slight red. Bitcoin went down 1.14%, and it is now trading at $9,109. Ethereum lost 2.02%, while XRP lost 1.43%.

Out of the top100 cryptocurrencies by market cap, the biggest gainer is Molecular Future, with 66.88% daily gain followed by Seele and IOST with 11.91% gain for both. The biggest loser of the day was Swipe, which lost 42.05% of its value.

Bitcoin’s dominance remained the same over the past 24 hours. Its dominance now sits at 67.22%, which is almost exactly where it was 24 hours ago.

Cryptocurrencies ended up being divided between being in the green or red in the past 24 hours. The industry’s market capitalization fell slightly when compared to yesterday’s value. It now has a market capitalization of $245.9 billion, which represents a $2.7 billion decrease when compared to the previous day.

What happened in the past 24 hours

It has been announced that China is preparing for the launch of its cryptocurrency. The initiative is quickly gaining traction as China is removing online posts that claim blockchain technology is a scam. China’s President Xi Jinping called launching their state-backed cryptocurrency an “important breakthrough” that should be developed.

Taking a look at the crypto data-tracker BitInfoCharts shows that XRP’s daily transactions now account for more than 50% of all the cryptocurrency transactions in the past 24 hours.  In the same time period, Ethereum came in second while Bitcoin and Bitcoin SV shared the third place. The last time we’ve seen XRP’s daily transactions being this high was the middle of the December 2017 bull run.

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Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s price was pretty stable in the past 24 hours. The $9,110 price level that it’s at currently indicates Bitcoin’s struggle, as it is sitting right on top of the support line. With declining volume and dropping RSI, Bitcoin looks like it’s getting ready for a bounce or a drop very soon. If the $9,110 line gets broken, its support will be at the $8,800 levels.


As mentioned before, Bitcoin’s RSI is slowly dropping along with its volume. This indicates a lack of buying pressure and preparation of a move (to the upside or downside – depending on the situation).

Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $9,580                                          1: $8,820

2: $9,740                                          2: $8,640

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Ethereum

Ethereum spent another day almost mirroring Bitcoin. After the big price surge, a consolidation needed to happen to make this move healthy. However, the dropping volume and RSI levels show the lack of strength to keep at these levels. Ethereum dropped below the $185 level which is now its immediate resistance. It is hovering right below this line and has made several attempts of breaking it, but failed every single time. If Ethereum breaks $185 it might be possible to see another swing upwards. However, this seems unlikely at this point.


Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $185                                             1: $178.6

2: $193.5                                          2: $167.8

3: $198                                             3: $163.5

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XRP

XRP has proven to be a separate currency with not much influence from Bitcoin. On top of that, its transaction volume has been skyrocketing. While it has been following the upward-facing trend line until today, it seems to have stopped doing that. The steepness of the line was too much for XRP to handle. However, XRP did not lose any of its value, it just stopped climbing up along with the trend line. It is now trading in between its immediate support (which is at $0.285) and resistance ($0.31)


XRP’s volume, as well as RSI value, seems to be quite stable and without any significant fluctuations.

Key levels to the upside                   Key levels to the downside

1: $0.31                                            1: $0.285

2: $0.325                                          2: $0.266 (major support)

3: $0.333                                          3: $0.245

Categories
Crypto Guides

Litecoin – Short guide to The Bitcoin Of Altcoins!

Introduction

Litecoin is an early Bitcoin spinoff as it was started in October 2011. It was created by Charlie Lee, who was a Google employee and a former director at Coinbase. Litecoin is a peer to peer cryptocurrency released via an open-source client through Github under the MIT/X11 license. It is one of the most commonly traded coins in the world of cryptocurrency and has a market value of billions. Forked initially from Bitcoin protocol, Litecoin takes the underlying source code from Bitcoin and making specific changes to increase the transaction speed of the network.

Objective

Litecoin is famously called silver to the bitcoin’s gold, i.e., in the world of cryptocurrency; if bitcoin is gold, then Litecoin is like silver. Mainly Litecoin was developed to overcome the shortcomings of Bitcoin. When it comes to the block time (the time taken to generate a block), Litecoin takes 2.5 mins to create a block while bitcoin takes 10 mins for the same. Hence, the Litecoin network is four times faster than the Bitcoin network.

Consensus Used

Litecoin uses a proof of work algorithm called Scrypt. Unlike Bitcoin’s Proof of work algorithm (SHA 256), Scrypt is more efficient as it prevents customization for hardware solutions and favors high-speed random-access memory. Hence miners find it easy to mine without much complexity as this algorithm allows them to use central processing units or graphics processing units.

Market Capitalization

Litecoin is in sixth place in terms of market cap in the cryptocurrency world with $3.9 Billion value while the price of each coin is at $61.70 as of October 27th, 2019. 63.5 million number of coins are in circulation in the market with 24-hour trading volume as $4.3 Billion.

Price History

Litecoin was traded first with a price of $4.30 in April 2013. By November 2013, it was selling at a double-digit price of $35.78. The form then has seen a continuous downfall and maintained a moderate standard rate until April 2017. It had seen a slow and steady rise from April 2017 with $10.28 to $297.18 in Jan 2018. The coin has yet again seen a downfall in 2018, with a price of $30.99 by December 31st, 2018. This crypto has been performing well in 2019 when compared to the previous year, with its highest rate in the year with $145.45 in June 2019. Industry experts are bullish about the growth of the coin due to its transaction speed and other vital properties.

Total number of Coins

Cryptocurrencies have a cap when it comes to production. While Bitcoin has a cap of 21 million coins, Litecoin has a cap of 84 million coins, which means only 84 million Litecoins can be ever mined from the network.

Rewards

For running and maintaining the network, the miners are rewarded for each block generated. Litecoin network rewards the miners with 25 Litecoins for every block generated. However, the reward gets halved for every 8,40,000 blocks made. In August 2019, the network halved the rewards as the milestone was reached, and hence the reward as of now per block is only 12.5 LTC.

Bottom line

The main aim of any cryptocurrency is to stabilize itself as a medium of exchange. While Litecoin has approximately around 100,000 users, it is nowhere near to be the standard medium of exchange amongst the cryptocurrencies. Still, as the usage of cryptocurrencies increases, Litecoin holds an excellent position to attain the place due to its transaction speed.

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Crypto Videos

Cryptocurrency – Coin Vs Token – Which Is Better?

Cryptocurrency Coin vs. Token

Before we jump into the comparison, let’s start with understanding the definition of cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies that are secured with encryption. This encryption is created by using cryptography, which is simply the use of encryption techniques to secure and verify the transfer of transactions.
Bitcoin is considered the first decentralized cryptocurrency. It is powered by blockchain, a public ledger that records and validates all transactions that happen on it. Even though Bitcoin was not the first cryptocurrency, its creation is extremely important as it is the first distributed and decentralized one. The creation of Bitcoin managed to start a whole market of other cryptocurrencies (coins and tokens) that are regarded as cryptocurrencies even though most of them do not fall under the definition of a “currency,” but rather try to solve a different problem in society.

Cryptocurrency Categorisation

As previously mentioned, the term cryptocurrency is not completely accurate for most cryptocurrencies. In order for a cryptocurrency to be considered a currency, it technically needs to represent a unit of account, a store of value, and a medium of exchange.
These currency characteristics are inherent within Bitcoin, and since the whole cryptocurrency industry started with Bitcoin’s creation, the rest of the cryptocurrencies began being called currencies. In order to better understand the nature of cryptocurrencies, there are a couple of categorizations. We will talk about the most common one today. Cryptocurrencies can be separated into:
Coins (Altcoins), Tokens.

Coins


Alternative cryptocurrency can also be called altcoins or simply “coins.” Altcoin simply refers to coins that are not Bitcoin. Most altcoins came to life as a fork of Bitcoin, built using Bitcoin’s original protocol with a couple of changes to its underlying codes. These changes are, even though seemingly small, what actually sets these new coins apart from Bitcoin, as they offer a different set of features to it.
A concept of modifying open source codes to create new coins is called hard forks, while a change to a code that does not create a new cryptocurrency is called a soft fork. A few examples of altcoins that came from Bitcoin’s code are Namecoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Private, Auroracoin…
However, not all altcoins came from Bitcoin’s code. There are altcoins that have created their own Blockchain as well as a protocol that supports their native currency.

These coins include Ethereum, Ripple, Bitshares, NEO, Waves. What sets altcoins apart is that they each possess their own independent blockchain. This blockchain is where all transactions of their native currency occur.

Tokens

Tokens are considered a representation of an asset or utility that resides on top of another blockchain. Tokens do not have their own blockchains as altcoins do. They can represent basically any asset that is fungible and tradable. This could range anywhere from commodities to loyalty points.

Creating a token is a much easier task than creating a coin. This is simply because the code from a particular protocol does not have to be modified in order to create a token. Platforms such as Ethereum or Waves offer certain guidelines which, if followed, allow anyone to create a token. Creating tokens is made possible through the use of smart contracts. Smart-contracts are programmable computer codes that are self-executing as long as the terms are met. They don’t need any third-parties to operate.
As tokens built on the same blockchain have the same template, they share many characteristics. This provides a standard interface for interoperability between tokens, which allows people to store different types of tokens on a single wallet. A great example is the ERC-20 standard on the Ethereum blockchain, which has been used to create over a thousand tokens. Most (if not all) of these tokens can be stored on ERC-20 wallets.

Tokens are mostly created and distributed through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO). An ICO is simply a way of crowdfunding where developers fund their projects through the release of a new token or a promise of a token. The ICO market has been filled with successful as well as very unsuccessful projects. There were also a lot of scams on the market as people were buying anything and everything during the time of the cryptocurrency price boom of late 2017. Nowadays, the ICO market has died down compared to 2017 but is still active. However, people are a lot more cautious when it comes to where they invest their money.

Final Thoughts

The main difference between coins and tokens is in their structure, where coins are separate currencies with a separate blockchain, while tokens are cryptocurrencies that operate on top of an already-made blockchain.
When it comes to the number of coins and the number of tokens, the majority of cryptocurrencies in existence are tokens as they are simply easier to create.

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Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Oct 30 – UK discusses Crypto Regulation, Chinese Mining Company files for $400 mill IPO

The cryptocurrency market had a slow day price-wise. Most prices stayed on the same levels even though the volumes, as well as RSI values, fell. The past 24 hours were uneventful as far as price is concerned as most cryptocurrencies are either in the slight green or slight red. Bitcoin went down 1.72%, and it is now trading at $9,238. Ethereum gained 0.44%, while XRP gained 1.07%.

Bitcoin’s dominance increased over the weekend even as cryptocurrencies rose in price. However, it is on the downturn in the past 48 hours. Its dominance now sits at 67.3%, which represents a 0.4% decrease when compared to its dominance value 24 hours ago.

Cryptocurrencies ended up being divided between being in the green or red in the past 24 hours. The industry’s market capitalization fell slightly when compared to yesterday’s value. It now has a market capitalization of $248.6 billion, which represents a $2.3 billion decrease when compared to the previous day.

What happened in the past 24 hours

There was no major news in the cryptocurrency industry in the past 24 hours that could shake the prices up or down. The volumes, as well as RSI values, are descending. These are just indicators of a healthy consolidation.

The UK lenient approach to crypto regulation might change by Jan 10, 2020. This may be done with the implementation of the “Fifth Money Laundering Directive.” Eric Benz, CEO of Changelly, said that the UK’s regulatory framework is just trying to keep up with the cryptocurrency market, which is growing. He said:

“I do think regulation is a good thing but only if done in a way, which suits this new market. Applying traditional archaic regulation to crypto simply will not work as it’s been designed in its nature to avoid regulation. There has to be a much better understanding of the market and technology on behalf of Governments not just in the U.K. but globally.”

Chinese cryptocurrency mining company Canaan Creative filed for an IPO on Oct 28. Canaan intends to be the first publicly-traded crypto-mining company. Canaan Creative filed for an IPO with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $400 million by selling its shares on the Nasdaq under the ticker CAN.

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Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

There were no significant changes in Bitcoin’s price in the past 24 hours. Ever since Oct 26, which is right after Bitcoin surged up to $10,430, the price was steady and in the consolidation state. Its price is currently hovering around the $9,220 mark, which is a bit lower than the $9,450 that it was trading at yesterday.


Bitcoin’s RSI levels are now falling under the RSI overbought territory and entering the regular trading territory. This indicates that the pressure that the buyers had is slowly dying out. On top of that, its volume is descending slowly. However, it is still above the levels it was at before the big spike.


Ethereum

Ethereum is doing pretty much the same thing Bitcoin does. After the big price surge, a consolidation needed to happen to make this move healthy. Ethereum is now hovering between its immediate support and resistance levels of $$185 and $193.5. Ethereum has attempted to break this range both to the upside and the downside in the past 24 hours but failed both times. It is currently trading at $186.7, which is almost exactly the price it was trading at 24 hours ago.


Ethereum’s RSI is falling below the overbought territory, and it is now valued at 53. Ethereum’s volume stopped dropping as it returned to the state it was in before the price spike.


XRP

XRP is, as stated in yesterday’s article, performing its consolidation a bit differently from Bitcoin and Ethereum. It is not trading in a specific range, but following its ascending trend line. Even though the volume seems to stay at the same levels, XRP is finding the strength to move upwards and follow the ever-rising resistance line. Just following this line indicates major strength to the upside. However, the trend of price hovering just below the line will have to stop soon as the aforementioned line is too steep.


XRP’s RSI is dropping from the overbought levels into regular trading levels. It’s currently sitting at the value of 53.

 

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Forex Videos

Why do we need private cryptocurrencies? – Who Is Collecting Your Financial Data?

Why do we need private cryptocurrencies?

One of the most essential features, as well as one of the main reasons that cryptocurrencies were invented, are the anonymity and privacy features. The fact is that most people do not care enough about privacy and anonymity as they believe that these features only important to fraudsters and criminals. However, ordinary people do need privacy to protect their everyday life.

 


The past decade has brought us various cryptocurrencies that try to fix specific problems in society. Privacy coins became increasingly popular because they provided privacy features that other cryptocurrencies only could not.

What are privacy coins?

Privacy coins are cryptocurrencies that encrypt its transaction by using a technology called “zero-knowledge verifications” or similar private technology. When a blockchain has privacy, its users can transact on it with complete anonymity as well as keep their wallet balances completely private.

Some of the most popular privacy coins include:
Monero
Zcash
DASH
PIVX
Verge
Particl
Bitcoin Private…

Let’s touch upon some important things about privacy itself as well as privacy coins (both good and bad).

Privacy matters

Keeping user’s information private lessens the risk of monitoring, surveillance, or even manipulation coming from governments or any other authority. The more is known about a user, the easier the person becomes to monitor and control. Living in this day and age leaves us exposed to various data mining technology as well as another form of information collector technology that can be used and abused.

Privacy is the only thing standing between people and external control, personal attacks, companies, and other individuals. When it gets ignored and marginalized, it allows third parties to collect your data. Every web search on a search engine or social media post acts as an information carrier which can be accumulated over time to make a detailed digital profile.
It’s about the freedom of thinking and expression
Every human being should be guaranteed freedom of thought and expressing themselves. This freedom is a necessity, but it has lately been entirely blurred by censorship and third-party control. Privacy gives people enough protection for them to feel free and be themselves.
It’s personal – Financial Safety and Reputation
Neglecting your financial privacy can attract various forms of fraud, theft, and danger. The same thing applies to cryptocurrencies as well, as most of them are only pseudonymous but are also quite transparent. The wallets whose private keys leaked have been hacked, damaged, or infected with malware.

 

The list of exchanges that have been hacked is ever-growing, as they are the easiest to break into. All of the funds are stored on a few addresses as centralized exchanges keep their customers’ keys to themselves. Privacy coins are here to help manage risk when it comes to any attempt of fraud or theft.

If we move away from finance, we can also include reputation as a significant factor that requires privacy. Every person on this planet has things they wouldn’t want the public to know or see. Some personal information is just not meant for being on display. Privacy features help people stay anonymous and safe from any information theft, which could result in reputation damage.

Privacy is even more than personal

Talking about privacy is often associated with only the privacy of an individual. However, that should not be the case. Privacy is only real when it’s applied to the whole system of network users as well as exchanges. One user’s carelessness about security could potentially leak information that extends further than most people imagine. That’s why secure systems, rather than secure individuals, should be a priority.
Privacy coin disadvantages
Privacy coins bring a solution to all the problems mentioned above. However, they also bring some drawbacks to the table along with the advantages that they offer.
Various governments, as well as external authorities, are frightened that privacy coins offer the perfect mechanism for concealing criminal operations. Offering the option for untraceable money and information transfers can be a threat to security. Robert Novy, Deputy Assistant Director of the Secret Service’s office of investigations, announced that privacy coins are “one of the greatest emerging threats to U.S. national security.” On top of that, Japan (which is usually quite open to cryptocurrencies) has put a blanket ban on any cryptocurrency exchange, which allows its users the obfuscation of its transactions.
The evidence suggests that financial regulators are undoubtedly anxious and afraid of how introducing full privacy could affect their control over the system. They are slowly but steadily crafting policies that will shape the future of using privacy coins.

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Crypto Daily Topic

Is Ripple a Cryptocurrency?

Ripple has long generated a lot of debate as to whether it’s even a cryptocurrency after all. Crypto enthusiasts and experts have always been at loggerheads on whether Ripple meets the tenets of a “real” cryptocurrency. One of these people is Anatoly Castella, CEO of Elpis Investments, who has gone on record to say Ripple’s XRP is “neither a digital fiat nor a real cryptocurrency,” and that it does not fall under the “purest interpretation of cryptocurrency.”

A crypto exchange – Coinmotion, even warned users about XRP not being a real cryptocurrency. “What one needs to know about XRP is that it is not a cryptocurrency in the strict meaning of the word…What differentiates XRP from other cryptocurrencies is that it is not based on blockchain, it is not mined and it is heavily centralized.”

The 2000+ cryptocurrencies out there all derive inspiration from Bitcoin, the world’s first Bitcoin. Some of these cryptocurrencies strive to remain “true” to what exemplifies Bitcoin, e.g., running on a decentralized blockchain ledger, using cryptography to secure the network, transactions being carried out via mining, a finite supply of coins, etc.  But should a cryptocurrency take after each of bitcoin’s traits to be labeled as such? 

Let’s begin by understanding Ripple

Ripple was released in 2012 as a payment settlement, currency exchange, and money transfer network. Ripple’s goal was to circumvent the lengthy waiting processes and expenses involved in the traditional banking model.

XRP is the native currency for the Ripple platform. The company has issued 100 billion XRP tokens, which the company promises to be the maximum number to ever be in existence, although some in the crypto community think Ripple may not adhere to this vow in the future. The XRP token is meant to be the bridge between currencies. It treats all currencies the same way –from fiat currency to gold to even airline miles, which makes it easier to exchange any currency for another.

As a cryptocurrency, Ripple has only recently achieved “mainstream” popularity. Traders and investors have long kept it at arm’s length, mostly due to its traditional makeup that reconciles crypto with fiat currency. For this reason, among others, some in cryptoverse have refused to recognize it as a real cryptocurrency. The question is, are they right? Let’s review some aspects of XRP that will help us answer this question.

XRP is More Premium on Blockchain

XRP was not designed to be a coin, at least in the sense of Bitcoin, Litecoin, etc. While Bitcoin, for instance, accords the cryptocurrency and the network both equal importance in security, speed, availability to all, and applicability, Ripple does not place too much weight on XRP as an investment-worthy security. Instead, it focusses on making the blockchain as robust and scalable as possible. This enables Ripple to enable seamless processes with its client organizations, e.g., the American Express and Santander Bank.

Ripple doesn’t support mining

Unlike Bitcoin and other comparable cryptocurrencies, there is no mining or miners with Ripple. Most other cryptocurrencies utilize different mechanisms which accord varying levels of power to the miners. Proof-of-Work, Proof-of-Capacity, Proof-of-Stake are just some of the many consensus mechanisms used by cryptos to power transactions. However, Ripple transactions are powered via a “centralized” blockchain. The idea behind the centralized network is to make it more reliable and quick.

Again, with most cryptocurrencies, miners are motivated to conduct network transactions by being rewarded with the currency of the network. For Ripple, however, this is unsustainable. In a service built for the benefit of the banking establishment, it makes no sense to have a separate group with different incentives for running/maintaining the network. 

The idea of mining and making the network open for any interested miners is to aid other cryptocurrencies to remain decentralized – with no central authority making the rules. While this has helped them stay true to the “spirit” of censorship-resistance, freedom from interference by corporates and governments, it also slows them down. This is something Ripple cannot afford. The no-mining aspect bleeds into other Ripple features as well, taking it further apart the standard.

Can XRP Be Minted on Demand?

In the majority of cryptos, miners are rewarded with cryptocurrency. This pretty much sums up how new crypto coins are released: by mining. Ripple has created 100 billion XRP already in circulation, which makes it nonvolatile for its clients.

This has led to some people in the crypto community to conclude the currency can be minted anytime – which is against the deflationary nature of cryptocurrencies. But this has been refuted by David Schwartz – one of the original architects of XRP ledger. In a Twitter post in November 2017, Schwartz stressed: “There was never any way to create additional XRP.”

He noted that the original code was prone to a malicious act that would conceivably allow someone to “violate system invariants” and add more XRP. But, they’ve since added an “invariant checker” that seals this loophole.

In other words, there is currently no functionality of adding XRP in the code. If, for any reason, new XRP needed to be printed, it would require a major amendment to the code and adoption into the whole network of validators.

Centralized Blockchain?

Users have access to a Ripple wallet, but accessing the Ripple network is another matter altogether. In the case of Bitcoin, the blockchain network is controlled by Bitcoin users all over the world. By contrast, the Ripple blockchain is not open for all, because that would create risk for the otherwise sensitive environment.

And while XRP uses cryptography to protect participants, in essence, it’s protecting “trusted” parties registered on the network. This way, the cryptocurrency has the benefits of a blockchain ledger, but in a safer and walled ecosystem that lends it more efficiency and control. We could say Bitcoin is maintained by participants who have an incentive to continue doing so, but still, they could decide to shut off their computers and walk away. This event would put Bitcoin in a sort of a precarious position, something which Ripple has avoided.

Conclusion

Ripple is not a “real” cryptocurrency, at least by the standard definition. It is more of a solution than an asset. While other cryptos may fit in the asset mold – complete with the deflationary qualities of mining and volatility, which makes them attractive to investors – Ripple offers a platform that may, technically, be a “cryptocurrency,” but one which cannot be regarded as such by crypto hardliners.

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Oct 29 – Cryptocurrencies surging, China’s President Optimistic on Blockchain

The cryptocurrency market has had an astonishing weekend, which brought many cryptocurrencies great gains. Yesterday was a continuation of the buying move that started over the weekend. Many cryptocurrencies gained over 5%. In order to make the moves healthy, the cryptocurrency market required a consolidation, which it is getting now. As for the past 24 hours, Bitcoin went down 2.59%, and it is now trading at $9,403. Ethereum gained 0.41%, while XRP lost 1.34%.

 

Bitcoin’s dominance increased over the weekend even as cryptocurrencies rose in price, but fell back down a bit in the past 2 hours. Its dominance now sits at 67.7%, which represents a 0.5% decrease when compared to its dominance value 24 hours ago.

Cryptocurrencies ended up being divided between being in the green or red in the past 24 hours. The industry now has a market capitalization of $250.9 billion.

What happened in the past 24 hours

There was no major news in the cryptocurrency industry in the past 24 hours. The elevated volume and continuous buying pressure seemingly come from China after their president told his citizens to seize the opportunity that is blockchain and crypto industry.

As reported by many news outlets, the Chinese took the words of their president very literally and started investing in cryptocurrency almost immediately.


Technical analysis


Bitcoin

There were no significant changes in Bitcoin’s price when compared to the state, it was 24 hours ago. After bouncing from the $7,410 support line, Bitcoin surged up to $10,430. To keep the gains and to consider this move healthy, Bitcoin needed to retrace. That is exactly what it is doing at the moment. The price is currently hovering around the $9,450 mark.


Bitcoin is currently trading right below the RSI overbought territory, with its volume elevated, but descending.


Ethereum

Ethereum is doing pretty much the same thing Bitcoin does. After the big price surge, a consolidation needed to happen to make this move healthy. Ethereum is currently trading at $186.5. After leaving its falling wedge pattern, Ethereum’s outlook is much more positive. However, its other indicators show a possible downward-facing move in the near future.


Ethereum’s RSI is also right below the RSI overbought territory with trading volume elevated, but descending.


 

 

XRP

XRP is performing its consolidation a bit differently from Bitcoin and Ethereum. Even though it is trading within a range just like the other two cryptocurrencies, XRP does not experience significant volume drops. On top of that, its RSI is dropping from the overbought levels into regular trading levels.



When it comes to the position of XRP’s price, XRP is hovering just below the upward-facing trend line, which it does not intend to cross. Just following the line below, it would indicate major strength to the upside for XRP.

It has become a regular occurrence that Bitcoin and Ethereum almost mirror each other while XRP makes its own moves in the industry.

Categories
Crypto Videos

Is Your Cryptocurrency Anonymous? How To Ensure It Is!

 

Anonymity in cryptocurrencies

Confidentiality and privacy (financial and in general) are becoming more and more important nowadays as the world has pretty much given up on privacy with the expansion of the internet. Cryptocurrencies have given users an option to protect their financial privacy. These cryptocurrencies are based on cryptographic protocols that act as security methods. By utilizing these protocols, all the transactions are safe, irreversible, and do not contain any personal information whatsoever.
Privacy and anonymity are one of the most important factors that lifted cryptocurrencies in the eyes of potential users. However, we have to make a distinction between “anonymity” and “pseudonymity” and what they represent, as well as which cryptocurrencies possess these features.
Simply put, anonymous transactions are transactions that can’t be connected to any person/user. But are cryptocurrencies anonymous?

Bitcoin’s anonymity

Bitcoin is often described as anonymous because people can send and receive transactions without actually revealing their identity. However, the truth is a bit different.
Even though Bitcoin does not tie an identity to a person, all Bitcoin transactions are stored publicly and permanently on the Blockchain. This means anyone can see anyone’s balance as well as transactions. Even the identity of the user behind an address can be cracked down if an address is used to purchase goods or services outside the “system.”
Most blockchains aren’t truly anonymous but rather pseudonymous, and that includes Bitcoin. Transacting in Bitcoin is like writing under a specific pseudonym. If the pseudonym is ever tied to one of the transactions, everything done under that pseudonym is also tied to the account.

People may say that full privacy is what they want, but pseudonymity and having no anonymity is exactly the argument against people saying that Bitcoin can be used for illegal transactions. However, if full and complete privacy is required, then people should turn to a branch of Cryptocurrency called “privacy coins.”
Private cryptocurrencies
Unlike Bitcoin, every transaction involving so-called “privacy coins” obscures the digital addresses of the sender and the receiver. Not only that, but the network also obscures the value of the transaction. This feature offers privacy coin users near-total anonymity.
We will cover a few privacy coins with the biggest market capitalization to show what they have to offer to the market:
Monero;
Dash;
Zcash.

Monero

Monero is the biggest privacy coin by market capitalization. This is most likely due to a lot of people believing that this cryptocurrency is the most anonymous coin on the market. Monero is based on CryptoNote, a privacy protocol that implements ring signatures which obfuscate payments in order to ensure anonymity when both are sending and receiving funds.
However, throughout time, Monero has evolved far beyond CryptoNote. The development team behind Monero combined CryptoNote’s ring signatures with Greg Maxwell’s Confidential Transactions to create Ring Confidential Transactions (RingCTs), which only obscure senders but also hide the transaction amount. Monero is constantly improving and implementing new features, such as giving its users the option to hide their IP address and geographic location through garlic encryption and routing.

Dash

Dash, previously known as Darkcoin, came to life as a fork of Bitcoin in 2014. Even though Dash includes privacy features, this cryptocurrency also tries to achieve other features such as Portability, Inexpensiveness, Divisibility, Speed.

When talking about Dash’s privacy features, its users have two options. Dash gives you the option to send funds PrivateSend or through a regular network. PrivateSend implements a feature called “CoinJoin,” which mixes the sent funds with other people’s PrivateSend funds before sending them to the recipient. The coins that a recipient receives are not in any way associated with the wallet from which the transaction was initiated.

Zcash

Zcash is another extremely popular private cryptocurrency. It utilizes a feature called Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments of Knowledge (or simply zk-SNARKs). Zk-SNARKs validate the transaction without ever having to reveal the details of the transaction. This feature makes it possible to send ZEC, Zcash’s currency, while the sender’s address, the recipient’s address, as well as the amount is never compromised or revealed.
Even though Zcash developers built this cryptocurrency on the original Bitcoin code base, these two cryptocurrencies have very little in common today. One significant difference between Bitcoin and Zcash is that Zcash is run by a for-profit company called the Electric Coin Company. This company receives 10% of all the mining rewards, which is regarded as a “Founder’s Reward.” These funds are then used to support further development of the project.

Conclusion

It’s no secret that Bitcoin isn’t actually anonymous, despite what various public figures might claim. Its pseudonymity makes its transactions vulnerable to being tracked by governments and intelligence agencies. However, Bitcoin’s privacy features are steadily increasing.
With Bitcoin’s improving privacy, it is possible that cryptocurrencies such as Monero, Zcash, and Dash may become obsolete. This will, however, happen only if Bitcoin offers anonymity alongside with superior store of value.

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Oct 28 – Cryptocurrencies surging, China’s president optimistic on blockchain technology

The cryptocurrency market has had an astonishing weekend. The past couple of days have brought us one of the largest price surges in a single 24-hour candle. The last time we saw a 40%+ 24-hour candle from Bitcoin, it was trading at $0.40 and $5.65. This could indicate an influx of buyers that are here to stay. Precisely this happened, as most cryptocurrencies’ price did not retrace, but instead stayed at their highs. As for the past 24 hours, Bitcoin went up 5.86%, and it is now trading at $9,698. Ethereum gained 4.59% of its value, while XRP gained 3.56%.

Bitcoin’s dominance increased over the weekend even as cryptocurrencies rose in price. This is because Bitcoin’s price itself gained more than the other cryptos did. Its dominance now sits at 68.2%, which represents a 2.1% increase from the beginning of the weekend.

Most cryptocurrencies ended up being in the green in the past 24 hours, which reflected on the market cap of the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. The industry now has a market capitalization of $256.69 billion.

What happened in the past 24 hours

There was no significant news regarding cryptocurrencies in the past 24 hours. The price was keeping up its upward momentum from the news that came earlier during the weekend.

As far as the weekend goes, the big news was the Chinese president Xi says that China should “Seize Opportunity” to adopt blockchain. On top of that, China passed a cryptography law which will be effective on January 1, 2020. This law will try to tackle regulatory and legal challenges in commercial cryptography use-cases.

Technical analysis

Bitcoin

The past week was not especially good for Bitcoin until the weekend came. After failing to spike up from the bull flag that it formed, Bitcoin started dropping in value, managing to fall from $7,950 down to $7,300 in less than 30 minutes. The support line at $7,410 was quite a strong one, and Bitcoin manage to consolidate at that price point. However, the volume suddenly spiked up, and Bitcoin’s price skyrocketed all the way to $10,360 before retracing a bit. Bitcoin is now trading around the $9,700 mark.


Bitcoin’s volume is still quite high, while its RSI is indicating trading in overbought territory.

Ethereum

Ethereum has also had a great weekend, as its price skyrocketed as well. After reaching the big support area at $153, it went up and eventually gained upward momentum. Ethereum’s price reached $199.6 before retracing. One important thing to note is that Ethereum’s price did try to fall below the falling wedge line. However, it quickly declined, and the price shot up once again.


Ethereum is now trading at $186.6 with elevated levels of volume. Its RSI is approaching overbought territory but is not there yet.

XRP

XRP has also gained quite a bit over the weekend. After breaking its upward-facing trend at $0.29, it crashed down to $0.25. However, the price recovered as the bulls kicked in, establishing support at $0.266. This was a baseline for the big move upwards, which ended at $0.315. As the volume faded, XRP retraced a bit and fell under the aforementioned trend line, which it did manage to cross during the spike. It has tried to break it quite a few times since but failed every single time.


Even so, there is no need for attempts to break above the trend line to be successful as the line is too steep upwards. Even following it is a great indicator of strength. XRP is now trading for $0.30.

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Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies and Crypto Regulations

Since the debut of the first cryptocurrency only ten years ago, thousands of more cryptos have filled the space, disrupting not just finance but technology itself. And in recent years, cryptos have become especially popular such that they have attracted the attention of governments seeking to exert some form of control over their seemingly unlimited potential.

Cryptocurrencies were discussed in a high-level meeting for the first time ever, in the 2018 G20 summit, about the possibility of introducing regulation of the crypto industry. The G2O countries declared in a statement that they would “regulate crypto-assets for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism…”

Although the move did not lead to any concrete action on the part of many countries, the discussion at such an influential meeting was a sign that it was no longer business as usual.

Challenges Governments and Regulators Face

Still, most countries of the G2O and indeed the world have yet to effect full regulation of the industry. The sudden emergence of cryptocurrencies and the new technology has caught most regulators off guard, and they still grapple with how to regulate them. This is due to reasons such as:

☑️Most regulators and governments don’t know how to classify Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs)

☑️Most regulators don’t know how to properly classify the sheer cryptos in existence – are they coins, tokens, stable coins?

☑️The fear of stifling innovation by overregulation – where do they draw the line between protecting users and suppressing innovation?

However, while some countries have taken zero notice of cryptocurrencies, others have responded to it with vigor: both receptive and unwelcoming.

In this article, we explore the cryptos regulation space, the widely divergent approaches taken by a selection of countries, key areas for regulation, and the current crypto news dominating political and financial discourse: Facebook’s cryptocurrency project: Libra.

Areas for Crypto Regulation

With the crypto world having various levels – mining, trading, etc., countries have been looking at different areas for regulation. Let’s take a look:

Exchanges, trading, and mining

There’s always the question of how cryptocurrencies should be classified. Are they securities, are they commodities? The category they fall in is the one that determines how they will be regulated. 

Regulators have also weighed the mining aspect – which is verifying transactions and recording them on the blockchain ledger. The process involves designated computers and is known to consume excessive amounts of power. For some governments, this is an area that has occasioned regulation.

Fundraising and ICOs

ICOs are the way crypto startups raise money by issuing crypto coins in exchange for fiat money or other cryptocurrencies.

ICOs represent a potential risk. Some ICO processes have turned out to be fraud, while some companies are looking to fundraise without a solid proposal for an asset.

Investing Instruments

With cryptocurrencies acquiring more clout, investors are looking to get a piece of the action. But the unregulated nature of crypto exchanges plus their susceptibility to malicious attacks render them a risky proposition. This has precipitated a drive to regulate cryptos to make them safer investments.

Governments and Citizens: Warnings about Cryptocurrencies

While governments around the world may issue different warning to citizens about the issue of cryptocurrencies, there’s a common theme running through them. Countries usually alert their citizens about cryptos’ potential weak spots:

☑️The high volatility cryptocurrencies – Cryptos are prone to drastic fluctuations in market prices, which might render them risky investments

☑️Unregulated organizations – Unlike fiat money, cryptos are issued by unregulated entities, which means there’s no one standard, safe, or ethical code of conduct binding them

☑️No legal recourse – Unlike investing in stocks or bonds, investing in cryptos has no legal protection in case of losses

☑️Facilitating illegal activities – Thanks to their anonymous (or pseudonymous nature, in some cases) transactions, cryptocurrencies are a favorite for criminal activities

Cryptocurrencies, Regulations, and Banks

The attitude of the banking system towards cryptocurrencies is wary since they see them as a threat that may cause an eventual bust of the traditional model.

This has seen banks reluctant to support crypto-related businesses, which could significantly limit the potential and growth of these businesses.

In this way, the traditional system could be the wedge that regulators will continue to use to keep the crypto industry in check.

Other sentiments concerning banking and cryptos have come from powerful individuals, perhaps pointing to the increasing and unstoppable power of cryptocurrencies. Some of these comments have come from the president of the United States, who has denounced cryptos and called for them to be regulated “if they want to become banks.”

In a tweet on July 2019, Donald Trump made the comments On Twitter, declaring he is “not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies”, which are “based on thin air” and that cryptocurrencies must “become subject to all Banking Regulations, just like other banks” if they wanted to become banks.

Understandably, such sentiments from the world’s most powerful leader sparked a fresh round of discussion about the regulation of cryptocurrencies. However, it remains to be seen if the president could aggressively go after cryptocurrencies and if those efforts would succeed.

Regulations by Country

Countries all over the world have taken quite disparate approaches to cryptocurrencies: from outright bans to open and liberal approaches to cautious optimism. Let’s take a look at how different countries are handling the crypto phenomenon and how some small nations are already establishing themselves as crypto havens.

United States

In the US, the treasury has classified bitcoin as a convertible decentralized virtual currency. The trading regulatory body: The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has classified bitcoin as a commodity. And the tax body, IRS, recognizes Bitcoin as taxable property. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) considers cryptocurrencies as securities.

Though cryptocurrencies are not legal tender, the government recognizes them as “a medium of exchange, a unit of account, or store of value.” Finally, the Department of Justice is in consultation with both the SEC and CFTC to design legislation for the space.

Canada

Canada deems cryptocurrencies to be securities at the Federal Level. The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) directs for existing securities laws to be applied to Initial Coin Offerings and Initial Token Offerings, as well as crypto investment funds and exchanges.

Canada also allows the use of cryptocurrencies, but not as legal tender. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada directs that “you can use digital currencies to buy goods and services on the Internet and in stores that accept digital currencies. You may also buy and sell digital currency on open exchanges, called digital or cryptocurrency exchanges.”

Canada’s tax laws and rules are also applicable to cryptocurrency transactions.

China

Banks and payment companies are not allowed to facilitate bitcoin transactions. Financial firms also cannot hold or trade cryptocurrencies. On April 1, 2014, the People’s Bank of China, which is the central bank, ordered financial institutions to close bitcoin trading accounts within two weeks. Crypto exchanges and trading platforms were effectively banned in September 2017.

The clampdown on crypto-related activity has precipitated the movement of several exchanges and mining companies setting up operations in other countries, like the mining company Bitmain which has since moved to Singapore.

The UK

The UK has warned citizens about the dangers of investing in ICOs and the speculative nature of cryptocurrencies. Still, the country has taken a cautious approach: neither giving the crypto industry carte blanche nor instituting stringent measures against it.

British lawmakers in 2018 launched an inquiry into digital currencies and blockchain to establish the impact of the cryptocurrencies. At the time, Nick Young, Treasury Committee member, said in a statement: “Striking the right balance between regulating digital currencies to provide adequate protection for consumers and businesses, whilst not stifling innovation, is crucial… ”

As of October 2019, the sale, purchase, and transfer of cryptocurrencies are still unregulated.

Switzerland

In Switzerland, cryptocurrencies are legal. In fact, the country’s economics minister Johann Schneider-Ammann said Switzerland wanted “to be the crypto nation” at a 2018 crypto finance conference.

The Swiss Federal Tax Administration deems crypto to be assets and subject to the Swiss wealth tax. The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has also published guidelines for ICOs, but to apply existing financial regulation to the fundraising model. FINMA has also stated that regulation will be applied to the crypto industry on a case-by-case basis.

The European Union

The EU’s European Supervisory Authorities released a statement in 2018 warning consumers about the dangers of cryptocurrencies. “VCs (virtual currencies) such as Bitcoin are subject to extreme price volatility and have shown clear signs of a pricing bubble and consumers buying VCs should be aware that there is a high risk that they will lose a large amount, or even all, of the money, invested,” the organization said in a statement.

The European Central Bank classifies bitcoin as a convertible decentralized virtual currency. And the European Banking Authority has advised banks not to deal in cryptocurrencies until regulations are in place.

In 2016, the European Parliament voted with an overwhelming majority to institute a task force for monitoring virtual currencies. It was revealed in 2017 that the proposal would include requirements for crypto exchanges to identify suspicious activity, including fraud and money laundering. As of 2019, one of the most popular crypto exchanges, LocalBitcoins.com, has implemented measures to verify customer identities in compliance with the EU’S 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive.

Malta

Malta, the small country in the Mediterranean, is another jurisdiction that is seeking to regulate cryptos, blockchain, and distributed ledger technology. In July 2018, the Maltese parliament passed three cryptocurrency and blockchain bills into law, setting up the first regulatory framework for crypto technology in the world.

The first is the Virtual Financial Assets Act, which regulates crypto platforms ranging from ICOs, brokers, asset managers, wallet providers, etc. The second is the Malta Digital Innovation Authority, which established a regulatory body, the Digital Innovation Authority Department, to certify crypto platforms and address legal issues arising out of the crypto space.

The final bill, the Innovative Technology Arrangement, and Services Act, is responsible for registering tech providers and their services.

“I think that blockchain technology, DLT, and cryptocurrency is where innovation is happening right now, and we are very glad that Malta can offer the first jurisdiction in the world to regulate this sector,” said the country’s Prime Minister, Joseph Minister in a statement to Forbes.

Gibraltar

In 2018, Gibraltar, the British Overseas Territory, introduced its Digital Ledger Regulatory Framework to regulate the crypto industry. Per the regulations, any firm using blockchain or DLT for “storing or transmitting value belonging to others” should be authorized by the country’s financial regulator.

The minister of commerce, Albert Isola, told CNBC in an interview that the “purpose of the framework is to create a new form of commercial activity. We are going to regulate it in a safe environment, seeking quality firms to come to Gibraltar in a way not to stifle innovation, but to actively support it.”

Some of the principles of the law are as follows include:

☑️Providing customers with clear and accurate information concerning risks

☑️DLT providers possessing enough resources to ensure they can run in a “safe and smooth” manner

☑️DLT providers taking “all reasonable precautions” to safeguard customer assets against “unexpected eventualities and threats.”

☑️DLT companies applying “adequate” anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing protocols.

Bermuda

The island country in the North Atlantic Ocean established its regulatory framework: the Digital Asset Business Act (DABA) to regulate the crypto industry. The set of laws apply to any identity incorporated in Bermuda and engaging in digital assets business – whether within or outside the country, and any similar business incorporated outside Bermuda but operating in its territory. 

The country’s latest regulation delineates the information that a company should provide during an ICO process. This includes a description of the project, how the ICO will be financed, the technical standard of the asset to be issued, and the identity of the fundraiser participants.

The Facebook Case

Perhaps no cryptocurrency project in the world has roused multinational pushback and threatened the traditional banking system as much as Facebook-affiliated Libra. Libra is a stablecoin (cryptos designed to offer price stability and are backed by a reserve asset such as fiat money) proposed by Facebook and whose release is projected to be in 2020. With Facebook’s 2+ billion users worldwide, the project could very well change the face of global finance.  

But before it’s even released, the project has been met with opposition from governments and banks who have voiced concern over its harmful potential: a threat to the global financial system, a gateway for all illegal activities, data privacy abuse, stripping nations of monetary sovereignty, etc.  

The US, UK, EU, France, Germany, and India are some of the countries that have spoken out against the project. The European Union financial services commissioner, Valdis Dombrovkis, responded by promising a new regulatory framework for cryptos, especially Libra. In September, French and German regulators voiced their objections, stating the crypto could threaten the Euro and unlawfully privatize money.  

And the G7, the world’s most powerful countries have warned that cryptocurrencies such as Libra “pose challenges for competition and antitrust policies” and that it mustn’t launch until regulatory concerns are addressed.  

Earlier in 2019, Facebook had released the names of 27 companies that made up the Libra Association – the nonprofit association which is behind the project. However, buckling under the regulatory pressure, several companies have abandoned the project, including MasterCard, eBay, and Visa. Other companies have also announced the intention of departure.  

However, Libra has stated that it doesn’t have the intention of bucking regulation. Dante Disparte, the head of communications for the project, had this to say: “We agree that the Libra project should be appropriately regulated, so calls for regulation are not a ‘setback’ or a ‘blow’ to the project. Responsible financial innovation and regulatory oversight are not in contest.”

The significance of Libra is that it could trigger more stringent and global clampdown on cryptocurrencies. It could be the cryptocurrency that changes the regulatory, and in fact, the cryptocurrency landscape for good.  

Conclusion

A common theme running through governments and regulators is they have yet to figure the potential power of cryptocurrencies, or even what their future looks like. Still, one thing is clear: regulatory scrutiny for cryptos is set to increase.

Thus, crypto-related businesses: issuers, trading platforms, exchanges would do well to establish safe registration practices, robust security for their platforms and customers, and seal any loopholes that might facilitate illegal activities. This will encourage the growth of the industry while continuing to power innovation in the space.

 

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Crypto Daily Topic

Dusting Attack: What is it and How Does it Work?

Since most cryptocurrencies in use today are open and decentralized, anyone can join the network and set up a wallet without providing any personal or identifying information. This is what makes cryptocurrencies somewhat anonymous. But not completely.

Although it is not always easy to find the identity behind a wallet address, each crypto transaction is publicly recorded on the blockchain and open for anyone to see. Therefore, technically, cryptos are not really anonymous but pseudonymous currencies. As such, it leaves users susceptible to a new kind of crypto fraud known as dusting attacks.

What is a Dusting Attack?

A dusting attack is a way in which an attacker steals a crypto user’s anonymity. This is done by analyzing transactions on the blockchain to deanonymize users in a process known as dusting. What may appear as a shower of small amounts of money or ‘dust’ sent to a wallet address could actually be a scam that can help the attackers narrow down on the identity of the user behind a wallet address. Hackers just need a little identifying information such as a pattern of addresses or locations to do a lot of damage on their targets.

What is dust?

In the world of cryptocurrencies, the term ‘dust’ refers to very small amounts of tokens or coins sent to a wallet, often in such insignificant amounts that the wallet’s owner may not notice in his/her balance. For Bitcoin, dust can be multiple amounts as little as 1 Satoshis (0.000000001 BTC). Dust can be hundreds of these tiny amounts sprayed by an attacker throughout the blockchain network with the hope that some of the amounts will ‘get stuck’ on the victim’s wallet.

At the core of cryptocurrency transactions, there is the concept of unspent transactions or UTXO. For every transaction carried out and recorded on the blockchain, there is a record of the input and the output. The output part of the transaction has two elements – the first goes to the recipient of the transaction, and the second returns to the sender as change.

In every successful transaction, the change that goes back to the sender is what makes up the UTXO and automatically becomes a part of the wallet’s UTXO set. The next transaction carried out by the owner of the wallet will include the UTXO from the set.

How a dusting attack works

The next step of the dusting attack is dependent on the victim unknowingly spending the dust. Since the balance amount in their wallet will automatically be a sum of what they had before and after the dust, most victims never realize when they spend it. The attacker will then track the dust funds and eventually deanonymize the owner of the wallet.

Despite how simple it may seem, deanonymizing the identity of a wallet owner is not a straightforward process. The way cryptocurrency wallets work is that a single wallet can generate several addresses when a transaction is initiated. Some tech-savvy and informed users have even set up their wallets such that they use a different address every time they carry out a transaction. The attacker will have a chance to attack only when the wallet owner combines UTXOs from several different addresses along with the dust amounts from those addresses.

By continuously analyzing the addresses on the blockchain network and comparing them with the information from the dust sprayed on the network, an attacker may track back addresses and ultimately find the network of addresses that manage a user’s wallet. The analysis is possible despite the large number of transactions carried out on the blockchain network because the hackers narrow down the transactions using transaction amounts, transaction times, and even exchanges.

The endgame in a dusting attack

What we have covered so far is the preparation stages in a dusting attack. The goal of this form of fraud is to link the dusted addresses with wallets and ultimately single out a wallet address to which they can trace the individual or company operating it. If a dusting attack is successful, the hackers will use this information against their targets, often through elaborate extortion schemes or through old school techniques such as phishing.

In the past, dusting attacks happened only on the Bitcoin cryptocurrency network. Of late, though, there are more of such cases on other cryptocurrencies. Just the other day, a network-wide attack on the litecoin network affected all users who had active addresses at the time of the attack, as reported on the Coin Telegraph. A quick analysis on the LTC blockchain revealed that over 300,000 addresses had been sprayed with dust, showing just how serious this form of attack is growing to be.

Back in October 2018, Bitcoin users who had Samourai wallets were the targets of dusting attacks. Upon noticing the attempts, the developers of the wallet responded in a tweet, alerting their users and explaining how to better protect themselves against the attack, which was still very new then. They then implemented a ‘DO NOT SPEND’ feature that marks suspicious funds sent to its users so that the dust is not included in any future transactions automatically.

The dangers of dusting

While almost all cryptocurrency blockchain networks today are almost impossible to disrupt or hack, users’ wallets are the weak points where attackers are focusing on when carrying out dusting attacks. Dusting and de-anonymizing attacks are not easy to pull off and may not be severe on their own, but it is important that users are educated on the damage that hackers can do when they know who they are.

Since Dusting attackers could use the information they harvest for other more serious attacks such as cryptojacking, phishing, and ransoming, it is important that cryptocurrency users understand the importance of putting in place measures to protect themselves from the moment they choose to open a cryptocurrency wallet. These may include using VPNs every time they access their wallets or the blockchain network, encrypting wallets, setting up different addresses for each transaction, and storing their keys in encrypted folders.

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Crypto Guides

DASH – Everything You Should Know About This New Age Cryptocurrency

Introduction

The word “Dash” is created from Digital Cash, thus signifying it is a virtual currency in its name itself. This coin was introduced by Evan Duffield in 2014, initially naming it as Xcoin. Later it got rebranded as Darkcoin as it was being used in the dark web for illegal activities due to its inherent features. The coin finally got renamed as Dash in March 2015. Dash is significantly different from the other cryptocurrencies in the market. It is an open-source cryptocurrency run in the form of DAO – Decentralized Autonomous Organization. We ll understand what a DAO in the latter part of the article.

Objective

Dash is created by forking the bitcoin network. Evan Duffield thought the bitcoin protocol could be improvised, especially the transaction speed and the governance structure, and thus started dash as an altcoin to bitcoin. The source code for the coin was taken from the bitcoin itself. Some tweaks were made to improvise the functioning as required. The block timing, i.e., the time taken to mine a single block, is 2.5 minutes compared to 13 minutes of bitcoin, thus making it four times faster. Apart from the transaction speed, the transaction in DASH is more private than the original bitcoin protocol.

Consensus

Dash uses a combination of Proof of Work (POW) and Proof of Stake (POS) mechanisms. Primarily it uses POW using a hash function called “X11”. While POS functionalities are used to reward its miners for hosting, maintaining, and updating the blockchain. Every cryptocurrency must have nodes to perform different activities in the network, but dash has two types of nodes, masternodes and normal nodes.

Difference between masternodes and normal nodes

Nodes are nothing but computational devices in the network used to host, validate, maintain the ledger copies, and secure the system. The masternodes perform all these duties while also having the vote function for the governance of the network. Masternodes contain the complete copy of the ledger, while normal nodes can have a partial copy. Normal nodes help in mining more coins as they concentrate on only mining. To be a masternode, one should deposit an upfront sum of 1000 Dash coins with a specific set of hardware requirements like RAM, hard disk space, CPU, and network bandwidth.

Masternodes help in the special transactions that DASH has to offers. They are PrivateSend and InstaSend.

PrivateSend

PrivateSend is used if the transactions need to be untraceable. This is achieved by dividing the entire size of the transaction to the small similar size transactions and mix them before executing a transaction. This makes the transaction untraceable as the senders and receiver’s accounts are not noticeable.

InstaSend

InstaSend feature is the extraordinary feature offered by the Dash. The validation process is done by only masternodes, thus making them instantaneous in real-time. This enables real transactions using Dash and can be used with merchants.

DAO

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations are the ones that work autonomously based on the precoded set of rules during the company’s inception. The founders and shareholders make decisions based on the voting process, and hence they are very transparent. DASH is essentially a DAO.

Market Cap

Dash currently occupies 18th position in the market cap with $625 million in value. The current trading price of the dash is $68.67, with a 24-hour trading volume of $216 million.

With all these features, Dash is amongst the most distinguishable cryptocurrencies out there, which proves that real-time usage of cryptocurrencies in our day to day life is indeed possible.

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Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Oct 25 – Today’s market neutral, Peter Schiff warming up on crypto

The cryptocurrency market has been relatively neutral in the past 24 hours. After a pretty horrible drop that ended with some cryptocurrencies dropping double digits in price, the market is in a stabilization phase. While some cryptocurrencies gained a bit of value, most remained at their yesterday’s levels. As for the top3 cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin went up 0.24%, while Ethereum gained 0.2% of its value. XRP was the biggest gainer out of the three and gained 2.45%.

Bitcoin has lost a fraction of its dominance due to it not moving much while some other cryptocurrencies managed to secure gains in the past 24 hours. It now sits at 65.6 %, which represents a 0.04% decrease when compared to the previous day.

The industry has gained some value as far as market capitalization goes in the past 24 hours. Cryptocurrencies now have a market capitalization of $205.66 billion, which represents a $1.5 billion increase from the previous day.

What happened in the past 24 hours?

The markets have been pretty stable in the past 24 hours as there were no moves from neither bears nor bulls. There were also no significant news that could impact the price of the overall crypto market.

XRP has managed to gain some value on positive news, however. CryptoBull tweeted that he remains bullish on XRP and that his price goal would be $10 by the end of 2020. On top of that, Tim Draper also announced that he expects XRP to explode soon.

Cryptocurrencies are gaining momentum in adoption, and we can see the future changing right before our eyes. Peter Schiff, an economist that is considered anti-crypto and a goldbug, announced that “Privately issued cryptocurrencies, backed by real assets, would represent a major improvement over our current system of national fiat currencies.”

Technical analysis

Bitcoin

Bitcoin was pretty stagnant in the past 24 hours. After finding resistance at $7,410, Bitcoin could not move far above the price point. However, this support line stopped a big bear move from that could cause much more harm to Bitcoin’s price.


Bitcoin’s RSI is slowly moving out of the oversold territory while the volume is on the decrease. This condition has historically shown that a move (bullish or bearish) is near.

Ethereum

Ethereum has had a slightly better day than Bitcoin in terms of price. Even though its price gain is far from big, Ethereum did manage to pull away somewhat from its support zone.


It is now sitting at $161.5, with the same indicator positions as Bitcoin (RSI and volume)

XRP

XRP has gained the most in the past 24 hours. This fact could be attributed to a large bull rally when the price broke $0.266. Even though the price managed to slip below the line, bulls rallied and propelled it upwards.


XRP is now trading at around $0.278 and looks pretty bullish in the short-term.

Categories
Crypto Guides

What Should You Know About Ripple? The Most Centralized Cryptocurrency!

Introduction 

In our previous articles, we have seen that Bitcoin has inspired and paved the way for a multitude of new and affordable platforms using cryptocurrencies. Ripple is one such platform developed by Ripple Lab’s incorporation, a US-based company in 2012. It is a payment platform built upon a distributed open-source protocol. This best part about this cryptocurrency is that it is backed by major Banking and financial institutions. They use Ripple for transferring money, commodities, cryptocurrencies, or any other units of value like flier miles or free mobile minutes.

Objective

The Objective of Ripple is to rule over all the international transactions worldwide. They have come up with this objective as the cost of international transactions is too high if we transact using traditional means. It also takes days to settle the transaction. The most innovative idea behind this platform is that we can use the network to transfer any currency, not only cryptocurrency, to be more specific. Thus, making the platform currency independent. Ripple Network, also knows as RippleNet, enables many banks and financial institutions to send and receive money smoothly throughout the world.

How is Ripple different from other cryptocurrencies?

In the world of blockchain, the upcoming networks or platforms are trying to eradicate the existing systems. Ripple is doing precisely the opposite. Instead of trying to remove them, this technology is trying to cooperate with them to make them better. Several products by Ripple Labs (XCurremt, XVia, and XRapid) are being used by several banks to perform transactions globally. The native cryptocurrency of the platform XRP plays an essential role in the system.

Let us see how the transactions are performed globally using Ripple technology. The currency which is being transacted is converted into XRP before the transaction. As the recipient receives the money, the user will have an option to convert the XRP into his/her desired currency. Thus, XRP plays a bridge between two different currencies in this case. The transaction fees for this transaction is as less as $0.00001. This transaction fee disappears from the network after the transaction is processed.

Market Capitalization 

Ripple’s XRP is in third place in terms of market capitalization amongst Cryptocurrencies. Currently, this crypto is trading at $0.295, while the total market cap is around 12 billion dollars. The 24-hour trading volume is $1,729,560,739. The maximum number of coins the XRP ever can have is 100,000,000,000, while 43,242,653,330 out of them are already in circulation (43.2%).

Pros and Cons of Ripple

We have already seen that many banks have trust in Ripple technology and started using this network. By using this technology, some world-renowned banks claim that they are potentially saving 70% of the transaction costs annually. Since all the coins are minted already, inflation i.e., the value of Ripple, remains stable over the period.

Ripple is highly centralized, unlike other cryptocurrencies. 61% of the coins minted are in control of the founders of the Ripple Labs. They decide when and how much of the coins are released. Hence centralization is the major con. In May 2018, Ripple was accused of alleged cheating through its ICO.

Conclusion

Since 2013, many traditional platforms that serve international transactions have adopted Ripple as an alternative remittance option to its customers. By December 2014, Ripple combined its services with Earhports payments systems, making it the first-ever partnership of Ripple with a giant payments network. Western Union, American Express, and Unicredit are some of the largest customers of this technology, making the technology achieve its goal closer every passing day.

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Oct 24 –Crypto market bleeding out, Zuckerberg announces Libra’s strategy

The cryptocurrency market has been bleeding out in the past 24 hours. After a pretty average performance throughout the day, cryptocurrencies dropped in price in a blink of an eye. Most of them lost 5%-8% of their value in a matter of minutes. The move happened extremely fast and with an amazing bear force. It seems like more bearish funds entering the market after cryptocurrencies have consolidated. The market is fighting for dear life as many people have given up on thoughts that this is a retracement in the bull trend, but rather an extension of a bear market that dates back from January 2018. As for the top3 cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin went down 6.84%, while Ethereum lost 4.09% of its value and XRP lost 6.2%.

Unlike with most bear moves, Bitcoin’s dominance decreased this time.  It now sits at 66 %, which represents a 0.05% decrease when compared to the previous day.

As almost every single cryptocurrency was in the red, the market lost a significant portion of its value. The industry now has a market capitalization of $204.28 billion, which represents an enormous $13.1 billion decrease from the previous day.

What happened in the past 24 hours?

Big influx of selling pressure caused the cryptocurrency market to lose over $13 billion of its market capitalization in a matter of minutes. There was no specific news that caused this. In fact, there was no news at all that was regarded as completely bearish in the past 24 hours. However, after the price drop happened, people started resurrecting the thought that the markets have not been in a bull market at all after the big crash of Jan 2018. In fact, many people believe that the price rise to $13,000-$14,000 was just a bear market retracing and then falling back again.

Besides the price drop, the cryptocurrency industry spent the day talking about Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services. He was in front of the Committee as the sole witness that was invited to testify about his role in developing Libra, Facebook’s cryptocurrency that is backed by a basket of stable international assets.

Technical analysis

Bitcoin

Bitcoin has had an incredibly bad day, which is what we can say about many cryptocurrencies in if we take a look at their performance in the past 24 hours. After failing to spike up from the bull flag that it formed, Bitcoin started dropping in value slowly. However, today’s selling pressure spike caused its price to plummet. Bitcoin fell from $7,950 all the way down to $7,450 in less than 30 minutes. After hitting a support line sitting at $7,410 Bitcoin started consolidating. This support line dates back from Nov 2017 and most recently May-Jun 2019.


So far, the support seems strong and the downward-facing move seems to have ended. This is further confirmed by RSI which is now heavily oversold.

Ethereum

Ethereum has also had a red day, but a better one than Bitcoin price-wise. Its price is currently $160 as the support held on during the time of crisis. The $153 support area is quite a strong one and should hold any slight fluctuations or bearish attempts.


Ethereum’s RSI is approaching oversold territory, indicating the end of the bearish move.

XRP

XRP was certainly not excluded from the influx of sellers coming into the market. After it’s ranging ascending price trend got broken yesterday, the price started falling sharply. The price fell quickly and even reached $0.25 levels. However, the bulls kicked in and established support at $0.266 which is considered a strong long-lasting support price point for XRP.


The price is now consolidating right above the support while RSI is just fluctuating above oversold territory.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What is Ripple? A Complete Guide to the Cryptocurrency

Ripple has undoubtedly made a ripple in the world of finance and the cryptocurrency community. From making headlines for alleged price manipulation to its unusual monetary policy, the currency has firmly made a mark in the finance world. 

Ripple Explained

The first thing to know is that Ripple is both a cryptocurrency and a digital payment and exchange platform. The ripple cryptocurrency – abbreviated as XRP, is the native currency of the Ripple platform.

Ripple is more recognized as a digital payment platform than for its cryptocurrency. Through its Ripple Network (RippleNet), the model circumvents the multiple intermediaries and high fees typical with traditional banking models. 

History of Ripple

XRP was founded in 2012 by Jed McCaleb and Chris Larsen. The model integrated the elements of an earlier payment system called OpenCoin that was designed by decentralization expert Ryan Fugger.

After its launch in 2012, it became the second-oldest crypto after Litecoin. As of October 2019, Ripple is the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap – after Ethereum and Bitcoin.

Network Design and Security Model

The XRP ledger is to Ripple what blockchain is to, say, Bitcoin. The ledger is a decentralized and peer-to-peer network of servers that powers borderless payments across multiple banking systems across the world. XRP acts as a bridge between currencies, making it easy to exchange any currency for another.

The XRP ledger uses the Ripple Protocol Consensus Algorithm (RPCA) to verify transactions. This algorithm enables the numerous nodes on the network to decide by consensus which transactions will go through, and in what order. These confirmations take only four seconds.

Monetary Policy of XRP

The maximum supply of XRP is 100 billion. The coins were all pre-mined before issuance, and according to Ripple, no other coins can ever be created. 

20 billion coins were given to Ripple founders Chris Larsen, Arthur Britto, and Jed McCaleb. Another 20 billion has been sold to companies and individuals, 7 billion is held by Ripple. In 2017, Ripple placed 55 billion in an escrow account, releasing a billion XRP each month for the next 55 months. At the end of each selling period, all unbought coins will be returned to escrow accounts for issuance beyond the 55 months. To decrease XRP’s supply overtime and prevent its devaluation, Ripple destroys XRP coins after they have been used to facilitate transactions. 

XRP can be divided down into six decimal places, and the smallest unit is known as a drop. This means 1 million drops are equal to 1 XRP. 

Differences between XRP and Bitcoin

Being the native currency for the Ripple ecosystem, XRP significantly differs from other cryptocurrencies in several ways. And since Bitcoin is the pioneer and the most popular of all cryptos, it makes sense to juxtapose the two to understand XRP better. Here is how the two cryptos differ:

☑️Aim of Development: Bitcoin was created as a digital means of exchange, but without the central authority and control exercised over fiat currencies by banks and governments. By contrast, Ripple was created for the banking system as a payment settlement, remittance system, and currency exchange. The idea was to design a system for asset transfers that were quicker, cheaper, safer, and more transparent.

☑️Mining Rewards: Ripple is not designed to be mined, unlike Bitcoin. All 100 billion XRP coins were pre-mined before their release. Only 43 billion are in circulation as of October 2019. On the other hand, Bitcoin has to be mined before being released, and miners get mining rewards in the form of BTC coins. 

☑️Protocol: Bitcoin is enabled by a technology known as blockchain to verify and confirm transactions. XRP is powered by an independent, patented ledger known as Ripple Protocol Consensus Algorithm to process transactions. Also, Bitcoin uses a proof-of-work mechanism to validate transactions, while Ripple relies on a consensus protocol to do so.

☑️Transaction Speed: Bitcoin transactions take 10 minutes on average, while XRP transactions take an incredible 4 seconds.

☑️Approach to the Banking Establishment: Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are disruptive to the established monetary system, with the potential to replace it in the future. Conversely, Ripple is cozy with the established system, with its value proposition, in fact, relying on being adopted by banks as a payment and settlement network.

Where to Buy and Store XRP

You can buy Ripple at any of the popular cryptocurrency exchanges, including Coinbase, Bittrex, Kraken, Binance, and Changelly.

For those intending to hold the coin for the long term, it is recommended to store your currency in cold (offline) storage such as a hardware wallet because it’s much safer and invulnerable to hacking attempts. An example of such a wallet is the Ledger Nano S and CoolWallet S, both of which support XRP.

For more active and frequent traders, having a software wallet such as Ripple’s own wallet or Edge and Abra wallets is more appropriate. Also, bear in mind that to store your coins in a Ripple Wallet, you need to deposit a minimum of 20 XRP. 

Should You Invest in XRP? 

XRP offers a quicker way for banks to process transactions faster, which could streamline banks’ operations in a major way and benefit both sides massively. Therefore, the question of whether XRP is a good candidate for investment depends on whether more banks and other financial institutions will adopt it as their payment and settlement infrastructure. Since no one is sure whether Ripple will succeed in its vision, the future value of XRP remains highly speculative for now. 

In any case, there is no such thing as a safe investment, and each decision bears a risk. Therefore, it’s entirely up to you to decide. 

Conclusion 

Being one of the most talked-about cryptocurrency and with its current rank among cryptos, Ripple looks set to continue being dominant in the crypto space. However, its potential for increasing in value hinges very much on the attitude of the banking establishment, something the crypto community is watching keenly. 

 

Categories
Blockchain and DLT

What Problems Do Cryptocurrencies and blockchain Solve?

Most people have heard the term cryptocurrency. But while some are confused by it, most have no inkling about what it means, or what it’s all about.

Cryptocurrency is an internet-based digital currency that utilizes cryptography to secure and facilitate transactions. Cryptocurrencies, sometimes simply called cryptos, leverage a technology known as blockchain – which lends them features like decentralization, immutability, impermeable security, and transparency.

Decentralization means that all participants in the network have equal power to approve transactions without the need for a central authority. Their high degree of security is enabled by the fact that transactions are broadcast across thousands of nodes, which must confirm any change to the system. This makes it impossible for malicious parties to hack the system.

More and more cryptos are entering the space, each with improvement in certain aspects of their predecessor. But is there actual value beyond cryptocurrencies being a means of exchange? Is the technology that powers cryptos applicable outside the world of finance? In this article, we explore the different challenges in our world that cryptocurrency is solving or has the potential to solve – from borderless money transfers to real estate, to centralization, to data privacy, and more.

Intermediation Fees

Cryptocurrencies solve the problem of intermediation charges. In the current money transfer business, there are so many intermediaries involved in the process – all of which contribute to excessive amounts of fees for customers. Also, the current options for sending money are not only expensive but also take days. 

Cryptocurrency has the potential to solve these problems and is already being used in several applications to this end. Take BitPesa, a service currently operating in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Senegal, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This service uses a blockchain-based system to send money within a day, as opposed to the traditional methods which take days and at a much cheaper rate (1% to 3% cost of transactions).

Another case is the Monetha payment system – which is based on the Ethereum cryptocurrency protocol. The system can carry out transactions five times cheaper and 10,000 faster than conventional systems. 

 Centralization

 One of the most exciting aspects of the technology underlying cryptocurrency is that it’s entirely decentralized – meaning it is not dependent on any authority for control. This essentially removes the need for a central authority while preventing one entity from having too much power over the system. 

Centralized systems have certain inherent weaknesses that make them ineffective in the long run. Firstly, as it has a single point of data control, a centralized system is more susceptible to malicious attacks. Centralized systems are also prone to price manipulation – whose results benefit only those at the top.

Centralization also raises the question of privacy. As digitization becomes the norm in the average person’s life, so is the concern for the safety of their data. The sheer volumes of people’s private data associated with centralized systems, especially with their vulnerability to bad actors, is not a favorable idea for the average person. 

This is where cryptocurrency comes to the rescue. A decentralized structure levels the field for all participants in the network such that no one entity has too much power to manipulate the system. A decentralized, peer to peer network is also secure. This is enabled by the fact that for hackers to successfully gain access to the system, they would have to hack more than half the nodes in the network, which is nearly impossible. 

Privacy

Traditional payment models like banks leave a trace of financial transactions. With cryptocurrency, it’s different. Cryptocurrencies are built with privacy and security that allow you to conceal your identity and transactions. Some like Dash, Monero, Zcash, Verge, Bytecoin, etc. have even been created to provide complete anonymity. 

There are several methods that cryptocurrencies use to conceal user information. Some use high-level encryption tools like The Invisible Internet Project and Tor, while others employ cryptography methods that provide proof of knowledge – without revealing that knowledge.

Double Spending 

Cryptocurrencies also solve the issue of double-spending. Double spending, as the term suggests, is spending the same money more than once – a potential flaw with digital currencies. With physical cash, it’s impossible to spend the same money twice. For example, you go to the ice cream stand and ask for an ice cream cone worth 1 dollar. You pay in cash and hand over the dollar to the cashier. As soon as you hand over the dollar, you can’t spend it again.  

On the other hand, a transaction with digital currency involves broadcasting to all the ‘nodes’ in the network. These nodes have to receive and confirm the transaction, and this takes time. This is where the concern of duplication arises. How can we be sure someone will not copy the transaction and rebroadcast it before it has been received and confirmed?

It’s hard to verify the real owner of a digital token – considering it can be cloned, duplicated, copied, or shared infinitely. Simply put, it’s difficult to confirm if a token has only been spent once.

Cryptocurrency solves this by ensuring users cannot double-spend coins. Blockchain – the technology underlying the currency, has a powerful mechanism that enables all nodes in the network to be aware of every transaction. And since the nodes show the history of the order in which they received a transaction, any attempts to double-spend are pointless.

Unbanked Populations 

Currently, 1.7 billion worldwide are unbanked – without access to financial services like insurance, investment, loans, money transfers, or deposit accounts. The lack of access to financial services makes it impossible for these people to escape the vortex of poverty. Meanwhile, traditional financial institutions like banks do not have the requisite structure to cater to this market segment without incurring losses. 

Blockchain-based solutions offer ways to provide financial services and still make a profit. They eliminate the need for expensive brick and mortar banking infrastructures. 

For example, blockchain technology can decrease the costs of providing microfinancing services. They also remove the need for the manual, multiple verifications that are associated with transferring money to emerging markets. This is made possible by smart contracts that radically cut costs and speed up local and international transfers. 

An example of crypto-based solutions changing lives by providing banking services happens in Venezuela. The collapse of the country’s Venezuela Bolivar currency has resulted in people using cryptocurrencies as an economic lifeline, making them more resilient in an unstable economy. 

Food Fraud

Cryptocurrency based technology also helps to prevent food fraud. One high profile case of food fraud was the horsemeat scandal in parts of Europe when meat advertised as beef in supermarkets was discovered to be horsemeat. 

Food fraud can occur in several forms – including adulteration, which is substituting an ingredient with a cheaper one, and misrepresentation – which includes fashioning a product as organic when it isn’t. These fraudulent practices not only pose health risks to consumers but also cost the food industry billions of dollars each year.  

While there are systems in place to curb food fraud, they aren’t completely tamper-proof, and it’s still very possible to play the system. Blockchain technology can be used to design systems that can track and authenticate every step of the food supply chain. This means that every party that handles food: from the farmer to the manufacturer to the store to the kitchen to your plate, becomes a block in the blockchain. The thing with blockchain is that it’s completely transparent, and its stringent verification process makes it impossible to misrepresent or forge a transaction. 

An example of cryptocurrency in action for food safety is Vietnam-based TE-FOOD, which has created a system in which every step of food production can be traced. Using the blockchain protocol, TE-FOOD provides a transparent and immutable (unchangeable) environment to track thousands of pigs, chickens, and eggs, increasing trust in the food ecosystem. 

Contract Conflicts

Traditional contracts are often the source of many business and legal conflicts arising from miscommunication, poor drafting, etc. It’s also a process that involves a coterie of lawyers, time-consuming negotiations, and a multitude of drafting phases. 

Enter smart contracts, the crypto-based technology that digitally facilitates, verifies, and enforces contract negotiations and performance. This type of contract enables trusted business agreements to happen without the need for third parties, a central authority, or lawyers.

Smart contracts work by self-execution of the negotiations between the parties. The contract is written in lines of code, after which both the code and the agreement are distributed across a blockchain network. This code controls the execution of the contract, and agreements are trackable and irreversible.

The decentralization and transparency of blockchain eliminate the need for an intermediary – saving time, money, and conflict. Besides, the technology is faster, cheaper, and secure, allowing for more reliable contracting. Where traditional contracts need long-winded verification procedures, smart contracts proceed with the utmost speed and efficiency. They set the stage for specific outcomes, removing any confusion or the potential of protracted litigation battles.

Election Fraud

In an era when the integrity of elections is increasingly under the microscope, blockchain can provide solutions for transparent and fair elections. Candidates who lose elections may launch legal battles that can delay the result and hold a country hostage. 

The blockchain digital ledger intrinsically creates an audit trail that not only simplifies the verification process but also minimizes the cost for expensive election apparatus. Furthermore, the process is wholly transparent so that anyone and everyone can verify the integrity of the results.

Crypto technology further provides an irrefutable record of the votes cast – eliminating the possibility for election rigging. Moreover, voters can cast their votes from the comfort of their mobile phones, enabling them to have a say in the process no matter their location.

Internet of Things 

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a concept of creating a network of devices with the internet and each other, including vehicles, home appliances, communication devices, wearable devices, and pretty much everything you can think of. The idea is to make the things we interact with daily to be more valuable to us. For example, your coffee maker monitoring when you wake up and then making coffee, or your shower heating 20 minutes before you reach home. 

The Internet of Things promises increased productivity and enhanced asset utilization to improve our modern lifestyles. But a significant impediment to the adoption of IoT has been the closed ecosystem (a system in which one or two people control the system), which some manufacturers stipulate as a requirement. This locks out other vendors from availing products to consumers, while also being denied a choice to compare and use hardware from different manufacturers. 

Also, IoT raises a lot of security and data privacy concerns, seeing as these devices would be communicating with external networks, rendering them vulnerable to hackers. Cases of connected refrigerators or automobiles being hacked are well documented. Also, IoT devices contain enormous amounts of data, which can lead to massive security breaches.

Blockchain technology can help solve these problems by:  

  1. Decentralizing the IoT to enable devices to connect directly; without manufacturers locking consumers into any particular ecosystem. 
  2. Decentralizing the IoT to prevent attacks – as a hacker would have to target all nodes on the network to obtain data – which is highly improbable   

Lack of an Identity 

Currently, 1 billion people worldwide do not have an identity. A large fraction of this number is refugees. When refugees are forced to flee their homes, many leave behind essential documents such as ID cards, birth certificates, and passports. Being able to prove one’s identity is critical because, without it, it’s difficult to access services that help begin a new life, local integration, or self-sufficiency – like a bank account, healthcare, a SIM card, etc. 

Cryptocurrency technology can come in useful in these contexts. The technology can host and transact infinite amounts of data on its publicly available ledger. Furthermore, identities on the network cannot be falsified, tampered with, and are time stamped.

Governments and charity organizations can use blockchain-based technology to issue digital identification to refugees, which would enable them to prove their identity and that of their loved ones and access financial services, healthcare, and education.

One example of blockchain improving refugee’s life is that of Bitnation, a startup that utilizes the technology to help refugees obtain digitally-enabled ID documents. By verifying a person’s social media presence and linking it to their social security number, passport, and other documents, he/she can prove their identity to the host government.

Arbitrary Asset Freezing

Cryptocurrencies can help citizens living in autocratic jurisdictions retain financial independence in contexts where governments unfairly freeze their bank accounts and assets. When people living in these countries run afoul of powerful individuals, their assets can be frozen or their attempt at transactions in local currency barred. 

Unlike fiat currencies (government-issued currencies), cryptocurrencies are immune from tyrannical whims. Crypto funds and transactions are stored in numerous nodes around the world, rendering government control infeasible. 

Real-Estate 

The cryptocurrency protocol can be used to solve many problems in the real estate industry, among which are fraud, high fees, price barriers, etc. 

Firstly, a cryptocurrency protocol can remove the need for paper-based record trails that are susceptible to manipulation and falsification. Blockchain transactions are tamper-proof and transparent, ensuring all parties transact fairly.   

Secondly, blockchain transactions are time-stamped – allowing for a party to prove without a doubt that a particular transaction took place at a specific date and time. The decentralized and transparent nature of blockchain also means everyone involved can know – and verify ownership details. 

Furthermore, blockchain-enabled smart contracts can help cut costs by eliminating the need for middlemen like banks, lawyers, guarantors, etc.

Blockchain can also enable tokenization (turning things into digital, tradable assets) such that even low-income buyers can own part of the property – while also allowing the seller to at least get a fraction of the total payment on the spot. 

Accountability in Nonprofits

Public trust in charities has dwindled in recent years due to cases of embezzlement and mismanagement coming to light. Blockchain technology can help these organizations achieve financial transparency.

Crypto coins such as AidCoin are designed for this very purpose: to allow transparent donations to legitimate charities. This way, donors can monitor where their money is going, and charities are forced to channel donations to the right purposes. 

An exciting use of this application is by the World Food Programme (WFP) to securely provide thousands of people with cash assistance. In Jordan, refugees can enter a store and simply look at an iris scanner, which then verifies their identity and then expends a food voucher. This system is based on Ethereum, a cryptocurrency.

Conclusion

These uses are just some of the numerous applications of cryptocurrency technology in solving problems in our everyday life. Across the food industry, finance, technology, and other sectors, exciting and innovative uses of cryptocurrency are being discovered every day. Also, more cryptos with real-world applications will keep budding if the current landscape is anything to go by.  

Categories
Crypto Guides

Understanding The Basics Of ‘Ethereum’ – A Revolutionary Cryptocurrency

Introduction

The most talked-about cryptocurrency after Bitcoin is Ether. Ether is second in market capitalization after Bitcoin. While the Bitcoin network is only about minting Bitcoins using the POW consensus algorithm, the Ethereum platform is much more than just the cryptocurrency that the network helps in minting. Vitalik Buterin developed the Ethereum platform by taking inspiration from Bitcoin whitepaper. He wants Ethereum to be something called ‘World Computer.’

Objective

The worldwide web(www), which came into existence with the advent of the internet, transformed our lives completely. To login to different websites, we store our email id’s and passwords in various machines, though the devices may be personal. Still, the credential information is stored in the servers of different websites around the world. Hackers make these servers as targets and steal our information, which results in a breathtaking loss. Hence Ethereum’s goal is to protect user’s data. Ethereum wants to disrupt the client-server model by using thousands of nodes across the globe run by individual volunteers.

Ether

So, where does Ether come into picture amidst all this? It is the cryptocurrency of the Ethereum platform. Ether is generated when each block of transactions gets added to the existing blocks in the Ethereum network. The number of coins made every year is a fixed amount as per the determination of the network. By now, we understand that the Ethereum platform offers decentralized internet or DApps – decentralized apps. As the services cannot be taken free of cost, Ether also helps in fueling the performance of these apps. To perform any transactions in the decentralized apps functioning on the Ethereum platform, one must pay in Ether. The transaction fees are also called as gas as it is the fuel to perform transactions.

Market Capitalization 

Ether is traded under the name of ETH in cryptocurrency exchanges. Each Ether costs about $172.49, while the market cap of Ethereum is around 18 billion dollars. The 24-hour trading volume is approximately 7 billion dollars.

Consensus Used

Consensus algorithms are the backbone of any blockchain network. Bitcoin and Ethereum both use Proof of Work (POW) as a consensus algorithm today. But Ethereum aims to move to Proof of Stake (POS) as POW is very costly concerning the power consumption and computational resources consumption as well. Ethereum hard fork is impending where the significant change is going to be the switch from POW to POS.

Price History

Ether started with zero price on July 30, 2015. 2016 was a slow-growth year for ETH, while 2017 saw tremendous gains beginning from the start of the year itself. By December 2017, the price was around $800. By January 2018, it achieved its highest rate ever with 1,261.03 dollars. A severe downfall has been seen in the same year; by June, it halved the value to $531.15 by December; it even reduced to $141.33. 2019 has been somewhat stable year compared to the previous years. In July 2019, the price was around $300, and at present, the price is at $172.49.

Conclusion

While Bitcoin has given birth to the concept of cryptocurrency, Ethereum went a bit ahead and explored the true potential of blockchain technology with decentralized apps. After Bitcoin, Ethereum is the next go-to cryptocurrency concerning any measure one can check. Ether price has been kind of stable this year, and investors can hold on to it for the long term as the hard fork of the Ethereum is only going to make the coin even better. Stay tuned for more informative content on individual cryptos.

Categories
Crypto Daily Topic

The Eighteenth Million Bitcoins Will have Be Mined by the of This Week

This week marks a milestone in the life of the world’s first cryptocurrency – Bitcoin. Blockchain.com, the cryptocurrency monitoring platform, reported that the total Bitcoins in circulation had reached 17.72 million by October 14, 2019. It will take the days before next week to mine the remaining amount to 18 million.

It has taken Bitcoin slightly over ten years to expend 85.7 of its total supply, which is quite the metaphorical “drop in the ocean” when compared to the 120 more years it will take for the total number of coins to be mined.

120 Years?

For many people in the crypto community, this seeming discrepancy might prove confusing. How can it take ten years to mine 18 million coins and 120 years to mine the remaining 3 million? The answer is in the network creator’s genius model, which is built to make the currency appreciate as the years go by, rather than devalue.

Now, the number of Bitcoins is finite. There can only be 21 million coins in supply, and when one day all coins are mined, no new ones will be introduced.

Miners get block rewards (free coins) every time they mine new coins. As time goes on, the block rewards are halved – for every 210,000 blocks mined.

When Bitcoin was new, miners could receive 50 coins for every block. The first halving was in 2012, bringing the rewards to 25 coins. The next halving happened in 2016, cutting the rewards to 12.5. The next one will occur on May 2020, making the reward 6.25 coins.

If the Bitcoin protocol remains intact and the halving process remains consistent, Bitcoin will reach the maximum supply cap in 2140.

Bitcoin Investors Are “HODLing” More Than Ever

Meanwhile, the number of addresses hodling 1000+ Bitcoins has increased, as people stockpile on the currency. 

On-chain analyst Glassnode (on-chain refers to transactions that occur on the Blockchain and are only valid when it’s modified to reflect them) has highlighted that the number of Bitcoin wallets holding more than 1000 BTC is now 2100 separate wallets. More wallets are holding bitcoins in the 1,000 – 10,000 bracket more than in any other bracket.

Similarly, the number of bitcoins in wallets with 1000+ wallets has gone from strength to strength: from 6, 919, 950 in September 2018 to 7, 184, 501 in January this year, to 7, 530, 446 as of October 14, 2019. 

These numbers indicate that as we approach the next “halvening,” people are buying Bitcoins in larger volumes, as further indicated by the recent increase in hash-rate discussed in more detail below. 

Bitcoin’s Hash Rate Is at an All-Time High

The hash rate for Bitcoin is also at an all-time high of 110.19 EH/s after being on a steady increase for the last two years – according to the cryptocurrency analysis website Bitinfocharts.com. Hash rate is essentially the rate at which a crypto-miner is working. The faster they are working, the higher the hash rate, and the quicker they can solve the next block and claim their reward.  

Just in July this year, the hash rate was 80 EH/s and has since grown by 37% in that short amount of time. In September, it hit 100 EH/s for the first time ever, with new highs regularly being achieved for the network. A high hash rate indicates surging mining activity on the Bitcoin network. This could be due to more miners scrambling to acquire more block rewards, or simply due to more efficient mining rigs entering the industry. 

Effect of Halving on Miners and a Next-Generation of Mining Rigs

With the next Bitcoin halving event being only six months away, the mining rig industry is rushing to roll out sophisticated and more powerful hardware to meet changing demands. As the reward rate goes down from the current 12.5 bitcoins for each mined block to 6.25, miners will want to mine even faster to get more coins within shorter time frames.

As such, we are witnessing a new wave of mining rigs, each more powerful than its predecessor. Some of the types of equipment are even up to about 500% more powerful than the older models, in terms of hash rate. 

Going by Bitcoin’s previous halving events, the crypto is likely to witness an upswing in the year before and after the event. This is especially likely, considering the currency continues to show strongly this year. Assuming that it remains on that path in the next few months, chances are it will experience an upswing after the next halving.

Bitcoin After 2140

One of the crucial aspects of Bitcoin’s survival is miners – the people who secure the network and verify transactions. Thus, a legitimate question is: what will happen to miners after every Bitcoin has been mined? After all, there won’t be any financial motivation – they will not be able to exchange their block rewards with cash. Will Bitcoin continue to function?

Fortunately, the network’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, envisioned this and addressed it with this statement: “Once a predetermined number of coins have entered circulation, the incentive can transition entirely to transaction fees and be completely inflation free.” What this means is besides block rewards, the Bitcoin protocol also provides transaction fees as a “compensation” option.

The transaction fees will rise after the maximum supply is reached; hence, mining will not be a loss. The only caveat is: currently, the fees pale in comparison to the reward of Bitcoins. However, as the rewards continue diminishing, the transaction fees will increase. The final result is the transaction fees will become valuable enough so that miners should continue verifying transactions. So, while new Bitcoins cease to enter into circulation, Bitcoin miners still get a payday. 

As these exciting chapters for the world’s pioneer’s currency continue to unfold, we can only wait and see how it holds up. It should particularly be interesting to see the coin prove its mettle after the next “halvening.”

Categories
Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Oct 17 – Bears Taking Over, Cryptocurrencies in the Red

Cryptocurrency market’s attempt to stabilize its price after the new highs last week has failed, and bears have started taking over. Slowly but steadily, most cryptocurrencies lost their gains and then some. The past 24 hours came with an increase in volume as bear presence increased.  Almost every single cryptocurrency ended up in the red today. Bitcoin fell down 2.13%, while Ethereum lost 2.91% of its value. XRP held on a bit better and lost only 1.99%, which would put it at the spot of the cryptocurrency that lost the least in the past 24 hours out of the top10 (excluding Tether).

 

Bitcoin’s dominance has increased slightly when compared to the previous day. It now sits at 66.4%, which represents a 0.02% increase from yesterday.

Most cryptocurrencies ended up being in the red in the past 24 hours, which reflected on the market cap of the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. The industry now has a market capitalization of $217.73 billion.

What happened in the past 24 hours

As volume increased steadily for a couple of days now, people were expecting a move upwards. However, they were greeted with a surprise as the market started dropping in price. As suspected yesterday, we can now say with certainty that the volume is coming from the bears instead of bulls, at least in the past couple of days. Most cryptocurrencies tested their immediate support lines and broke them downwards, trying to reach a point of consolidation. Only a handful of cryptocurrencies managed to stay out of the red today, while most of the cryptocurrencies lost several percents of their value.

Technical analysis

Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s short-term chart looks pretty grim at the moment. The bulls have seemingly left the building, and the bears are running the place. With volume increasing dramatically (and not just for one quick spike), Bitcoin seems to be dropping down slowly all throughout the day. The price seems to drop quickly and then consolidate at the next support line, which then gets rejected, and the price gets lower. That’s exactly what happened three times since the last green day Bitcoin has had. Bitcoin’s immediate support is currently at $7,912, and it is holding up well for now.


 

Bitcoin’s RSI has just left the oversold territory while the price remained on the same level. As for volume increases, it looks like that the big downward-facing price spikes require less and less volume, while volume during consolidation periods is increasing.

Ethereum

As stated in yesterday’s article, Ethereum started mirroring Bitcoin’s movements due to a lack of identity at the moment (mostly volume). Ethereum started falling in price slowly, dropping from $181 to $179, which is when the big drop happened. The spike dropped Ethereum from $179 all the way down to $172 in just over one hour. This price level became support as Ethereum rejected lower price points. The price is now in between the $172 support line and the $176.3 resistance line.


While its volume seems to be elevated, it does not seem enough to break from the major influence that Bitcoin has become.

XRP

Unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum, XRP did not have such a bad day. Even though it lost some value, it did not break any support lines. One the other hand, it did fail to break a resistance line as it tried to push past $0.2855 on one occasion. After the attempt of breaking the resistance failed, XRP dropped down to its support line, which is sitting at $0.282 and bounced from it to the middle of the “range.” If other cryptocurrencies keep dropping in value slightly every day, XRP might follow, but there is also a high probability of it just staying where it is price-wise as the bear volume avoided coming into it (at least for now).


XRP has not seen the same volume increase as with Bitcoin and Ethereum, which further proves that bear money has entered the market (it just avoided XRP for some reason).

Categories
Crypto Guides

How Does A Cryptocurrency Work? (Example – Bitcoin)

In the previous articles, we have learned the definition, properties, and purpose of cryptocurrency. But it is vital for us to know how cryptocurrencies work. In this article, let us find out that by taking the example of Bitcoin.

Below are some of the important terminologies you should know before going further.

Peer to Peer Network (P2P) – The networks where computational devices are joined together with the internet instead of using a central server are called peer to peer networks. Hence there is less chance of a network failure than the standard server model to form a network.

Miners – Miners are the participants in the network who validate transactions. Thus, the creation of new Bitcoins is often referred to as the mining of bitcoins.

Nodes – The individual computational devices in the network are called nodes. The nodes are joined to form a P2P network.

Consensus algorithms – To validate the transactions, the miners in the network should agree whether a transaction is valid or not. The blockchain network uses consensus algorithms to get this job done.

How does the Bitcoin network work?

The blockchain network is set up in a peer to peer way, enabling decentralization of the network effectively, removing the server model. Bitcoin network bundles a certain number of transactions into a block, and these blocks are linked using cryptographic hashing techniques. The miner should validate these blocks for the authenticity of the transactions. To confirm them, the system proposes a challenge to the miners, and the first miner to solve the problem, propagates the message throughout the network. The solution to the challenge is called ‘nonce.’ The complexity of finding this nonce increase as the number of blocks keeps increasing in the system. The other miners validate and approve the transactions if the transactions are not fraudulent.

Bitcoin as reward

The miner who achieves the solution first gets rewarded in the network in the form of Bitcoins. This is how and why the Bitcoins are generated in the network. The miners should be rewarded to keep them motivated and committed to the network. Without miners, the network wouldn’t be sustainable.

To transact Bitcoins in the network, users must pay transaction fees as well. These transaction fees are also in Bitcoin. Hence these transaction fees and Bitcoins generated are paid as a reward to the miners for validating the transactions.

POW as a consensus algorithm

Bitcoin uses Proof of Work (POW) as a consensus algorithm. POW proposes a challenge to the network, which is to be solved to validate the transactions. But why is it necessary? Because POW discourages denial of service. Below are the steps involved in POW in general.

  • The service requester requests service from the service provider.
  • The service provider gives a challenge that should be a bit complex for the service requester to resolve but easy enough for the service provider to check.
  • The service provider proposes this challenge to avoid the exploitation of the service from the service requester.

The exact same concept is used in the Bitcoin network, as well. The miner must expend a considerable amount of computational energy and electricity to solve the challenge. Because by doing this, he/she will not validate fraudulent transactions to be accurate. If they do validate fake transactions, they will lose all the time and computational power they spent and also the chance of gaining a reward. POW is the most efficient consensus algorithm so far, and it makes the Bitcoin network efficient.

We hope you understood the working of Bitcoin. Cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin with different blockchains and consensus work in a different way. You will know about each of them in the upcoming articles. Let us know if you have any questions in the comments below. Cheers!

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Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Oct 16 – Another Red Day in Play

The cryptocurrency market has been trying to recover and find a point of consolidation for some time now. While most cryptocurrencies ended up in green yesterday, that is not the case today. Bitcoin fell down 2.05%, while Ethereum lost 3.05% of its value. XRP held on a bit better and lost only 1.47%.  Bitcoin SV did the best out the top10 cryptocurrencies, being the only one in the green. It managed to gain 6.11% in the past 24 hours.

Bitcoin’s dominance hasn’t changed all that much from yesterday, but it did fall a few fractions of a percent. Its dominance now sits at 66.2%.

Most cryptocurrencies lost a few percents of their value, which reflected on the market cap of the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. The industry now has a market capitalization of $222.99 billion, which represents close to a $5 billion drop from yesterday.

What happened in the past 24 hours

A steady increase in volume and a green day for most cryptocurrencies indicated bulls rallying. Today, however, prices fell even with the volume keeping its level. The volume seems to have been coming from the bears instead of bulls today. Most cryptocurrencies tested their immediate support lines and broke them downwards, trying to reach a point of consolidation. While some cryptocurrencies only lost a fraction of a percentage, many lost a couple of percent of their valuation.

Technical analysis

Bitcoin

After a green day yesterday, Bitcoin seemed strong as it tried to establish a support line at $8,300 and even contest new highs. The bulls could not pass through $8,395, which is when bears seem to have taken over. With volume remaining at the same levels, Bitcoin started dropping down slowly until one big red candle, which brought its price from $8,326 all the way down to $8,078. This price got rejected quickly, and Bitcoin found its new short-term support at the $8,130 level.


Bitcoin’s RSI is currently not in overbought or oversold territory, but the current position does not look good. If the price goes under the support level, Bitcoin might have to look for new support at a level below $8,000.

Ethereum

Ethereum suffered from the same faith as Bitcoin today. After having a great day, the bulls lost momentum, and bears took over. Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum had low volume levels throughout the week. After failing to break the $188 price point, Ethereum went down to $176. As with Bitcoin, this price got rejected, and Ethereum found support at the 0% Fib retracement line, which sits at $177.85.


Ethereum seems to have low volume levels apart from the sudden spikes in volume, which correct its price upwards or downwards. This fact might implicate that Ethereum has a high probability of mirroring Bitcoin’s movements in the short-term.

XRP

XRP lost the least out of the top-three cryptocurrencies today. This fact can mainly be attributed to its superb gains from the day before. With its volume looking good, yesterday’s move had to retrace a little in order for it to be a healthy move.


With XRP not having enough strength to pass $0.3, bears decided to take things into their own hands. The price dropped to $0.283 but quickly sprung up to $0.286, which now represents its immediate support. It is still uncertain whether XRP will try to push higher, consolidate or try its luck at a lower price point.

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Crypto Market Analysis

Daily Crypto Review, Oct 15 – Gradual 24-Hour Volume Increase

The cryptocurrency market has been trying to recover and find a point of consolidation in the past 24 hours. Most of the cryptocurrencies ended up slightly in the green, while some even went up by quite a bit. While Bitcoin gained only 0.86%, Ethereum went up by 2.57% and XRP by 5.75%. Stellar was the biggest gainer of the day out of the top10 cryptocurrencies by market cap, gaining 7.08%.

Bitcoin has remained a dominant force in the industry as it always was, but it has dropped a few fractions of a percent today. Its dominance now sits at 66.25%.

As mentioned above, most cryptocurrencies kept their price levels or went up in the past 24 hours. This could translate to the overall market cap of the cryptocurrency market in a positive way. The industry now has a market capitalization of $227.11 billion.

What happened in the past 24 hours

After a red weekend, cryptocurrencies are trying to recover and settle at their respective price levels. Most of them had a slight increase in volume and a few attempts to break immediate resistances. Some made it through, and some didn’t. Even so, almost all of the top cryptocurrencies maintained their price levels or went above their most recent lows, which could only indicate a return of the bulls. This time, Bitcoin is not the main player, as many altcoins managed to outperform it.


Technical analysis


Bitcoin

Once the low of $8,133 got rejected, Bitcoin tried to find a price to settle at. It was unsure whether that price will be above or below the 23.6% Fib retracement line, which is now at the price of just below $8,300. However, as volume gradually increased during the day, Bitcoin went above the line and contested the next resistance twice. The $8395 line was not so kind to Bitcoin as it could not pass through it either time. Both attempts were rejected, and Bitcoin is now settling in between the Fib retracement line 23.6%, which now acts as support and Fib retracement 38.2% line, which is the immediate resistance.


As Bitcoin is now in a limbo between the two lines, RSI shows us that it’s not oversold or overbought. One thing that is different this time is that, unlike over the weekend, the volume increase was not sudden and a one-time thing. Bitcoin’s volume in the past 24 hours has been elevated, rather than it being one big spike of volume and then back to normal.


Ethereum

Ethereum has, similar to Bitcoin, denied its low of $178 and tried to find a price to consolidate at. With new money seemingly coming in, Ethereum slowly moved above the 23.6% resistance line now turning support, but quickly lost its momentum and headed straight back down. However, the bulls rallied, creating a sudden spike in price, skyrocketing Ethereum past two resistance lines ($182 and $185.5). The bullish sentiment toned down at that point, making the upward-facing move unable to reach another milestone and pass $188. Ethereum kept its daily gains and is now consolidating at $187.



XRP

XRP has had a great day. Unlike Bitcoin, which managed to consolidate or Ethereum, which made a slight move upwards, XRP skyrocketed and breezed through its resistance lines. The move completely nullified the whole weekend of price losses and then some. Its price went up from $0.273 all the way up to $0.3, which is its significant resistance. XRP is currently making moves towards reaching above this price, and only time will tell if it will be broken soon or not. However, the volume seems to be gradually tapering off, which might not be a good sign for the XRP bulls.


 

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Cryptocurrencies

Understanding Ethereum – A Step-by-Step Guide

When we thought we had heard it all about blockchain, and what it does, Ethereum sprang up. To many, it was seen as just another Bitcoin, but what most people didn’t know was that the project presented a timely idea, and a life-changing one whose implementation was bound to lead the world to new paths.

I know you’ve probably heard about Ethereum, but you’ve probably dismissed it as just another crypto. But what is it in the first place? Could it be just another crypto? Is it the same thing as ether? And what is it used for? Well, in this article, I’ll be expounding it in detail to answer these and to show you why Ethereum is not just another crypto.

What is Ethereum?

For starters, Ethereum is a software platform that allows developers to generate and deploy decentralized applications that are accessible globally. If you want to create a decentralized application, that not even you can control, then the Ethereum platform is the place to go. All you need to do is understand Ethereum’s programming language – solidity – and begin coding.

In simple words, Ethereum is the infrastructure that lets you run decentralized apps worldwide.

You will find some people using the words Ethereum and ether interchangeably. So is Ethereum and Ether one and the same thing? Well, let’s find out.

Ethereum and Ether – Are they any different?

The concept of Ethereum and Ether can be a little confusing. When we hear Ethereum, we are quick to associate it with other cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. To make it clearer, Ethereum is a platform built on blockchain where developers can build and deploy thousands of applications using smart contracts.

Ether, on the other hand, is the fuel that powers the Ethereum network, and the programmable money sold on cryptocurrency exchanges. 

The same way you’ll need gas for your car, ether is necessary for you to deploy and run applications on the platform. Ether is the power behind smart contracts and running DApps, token generation during ICOs, making payments, and facilitating transactions on the ETH blockchain.

In summary:

Ethereum is the platform; ether is what powers the platform

Ether can be bought and sold, Ethereum cannot

Ethereum has multiple applications; ether has a single application, enabling operations on the parent blockchain.

So, are Ethereum and Bitcoin similar?

Well, the two are similar in that they are both blockchain networks, but there are some significant technical disparities between the two. There is a very substantial difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum in both purpose and capability. While the former track’s ownership of digital currency, the latter’s primary focus is to support decentralized applications. 

In short, we can say that Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer currency that can be transferred instantly between transacting parties securely. Ethereum, on the other hand, supports smart contracts. And if you are wondering to yourself what a smart contract is, then you will be pleased to know that at the core of these Decentralized applications is a smart contract. So, what exactly is a smart contract?

What is a Smart contract in Ethereum?

A smart contract is simply a phrase coined to describe best “a computer code that can veto the exchange of property, money, content, shares, or anything valuable.” In blockchain language, a smart contract is a self-executing computer program that completes whenever certain conditions are met. It is a programmed code that runs without the possibility of third-party influence, fraud, downtime, or censorship.

All blockchains can process code, but most of them are limited. With Ethereum, it becomes different. Instead of allowing for limited operations, Ethereum lets developers create as many applications as they can, something never experienced before.

What are the uses of Ethereum?

The main use of Ethereum is to enable developers to create and deploy decentralized apps where these decentralized apps, also known as DApps, serve particular functions to users. By virtue of being built on a blockchain, decentralized apps are not controllable by any person or central system.

Ethereum can be used to decentralize any centralized service. From the existing intermediary services across a myriad of industries such as bank loans to other seemingly less interesting systems like voting and title registries, Ethereum can be used to get them all decentralized.

Another objective use of Ethereum is in the building of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO). This is an organization with no apparent leadership, run exclusively by programming code on a variety of smart contracts recorded on the Ethereum blockchain. The code takes the position of organization rules and structures, totally eliminating the need for a centralized control like in a traditional organization. Anyone who purchases tokens becomes a part-owner of a DAO, but instead of converting tokens to equity shares, tokens give people voting rights.

Ethereum is currently being accessed as a reliable platform for launching other cryptocurrencies. Following the ERC20 token standard laid down by the Ethereum Foundation, interested developers can also start their own versions and raise funds through an ICO. Through this strategy, token issuers set the amount of money they intend to raise before offering it in a crowd-sale in exchange for Ether. The last two years alone have witnessed ICOs raising Billions of dollars on the Ethereum platform.

Conclusion

For all the talk of decentralizing the system, Ethereum appears to be the ultimate solution. Its rise is suggestive of a market ready to embrace positive changes, and a platform for development in an area previously shadowed with uncertainties. It presents a bold claim for a futuristic technology unreliant on third-party forces, including social and political interferences. 

 

Categories
Crypto Guides

The Evolution & Properties Of Cryptocurrency!

Introduction

We could say that the type of currencies we use today is employed as a medium of exchange for goods and services. In the olden days, transactions used to happen in the barter system. Barter system implies that goods are exchanged for goods. With this system, it took time to trade products and services as it is challenging to find people to accept their goods for the goods they want. Hence came the era of coins in gold or some other metal with a denomination printed on it. As some standard is associated with it, the trading of goods and services has become easy. Then came the paper notes making it easy to carry large amounts of cash, which was not possible with coins. We are this point where these paper notes are known as currencies. Each country has its respective currency (The US Dollar, Japanese Yen, Indian Rupee, etc.)

Evolution Of Cryptocurrency

Even though the purpose of the money didn’t change much, the way we use it kept changing throughout history. Banks came into existence to ease out the financial transactions. They played a significant role in global trade in terms of transferring money across different countries, thus improving the economy of each country. Physically minted cash would be less than 10% of the entire currency in the world. Remaining exists in the form of virtual currency as electronic money in online accounts. Central banks in each country control these accounts. Since power is vested within these financial institutions, the entire banking process is centralized. Hence the necessity of an alternative currency has emerged. These are termed as cryptocurrencies, and the primary purpose of their invention is to create a decentralized currency system where the entire network is not controlled by anyone at all.

What Are Cryptocurrencies?

Cryptocurrencies are digital or virtual currencies where cryptographic techniques are used to generate the units of currency and monitor the transfer of funds without a central bank. Thus, making it a decentralized way of producing and using money.

Cryptocurrencies are generated by using a blockchain platform that uses distributed ledger technology. The first-ever cryptocurrency that has come into existence is The Bitcoin in 2009, though the white paper related to this concept was released in October of 2008. Thus, 2009 signals the beginning of the era of cryptocurrency. There has been no looking back since then.

Properties Of Cryptocurrency

The three fundamental features of cryptocurrencies are Trustlessness, Immutability, and Decentralization. Let us understand these properties using the example of Bitcoin.

Trustless

Though the word trustless creates confusion to the readers, it merely means there is no need not trust anyone or anything to send or accept a cryptocurrency. If we say an environment is trustless, that means there is no need for you to trust anyone in the network. The Bitcoin network is a trustless environment. There was no currency before Bitcoin that was not monitored by a central bank. Every node in the blockchain network has a copy of the ledger; thus, there is no need to trust any authority.

Immutability

Immutability means that it cannot be undone. It is highly improbable to rewrite the history of the transactions in Bitcoin blockchain. Since all the transactions are recorded in the blockchain, the cryptographic techniques make it highly impossible to change any transactions. If any fraudulent transactions happen in the case of our bank accounts, the banks have the authority to change the transaction. But in the case of cryptocurrency, it is not possible. Thus, removing the concept of centralization and trust from these digital currencies.

Decentralization

It is the keyword when it comes to cryptocurrencies. Decentralization offers different types of tolerances. Tolerance concerning the infrastructure, component failures, hacking, and collusions. In the Bitcoin network, the ledger where the transactions are recorded is distributed among every node in the network. Any component failures don’t cause any problem to the functioning of the network. Hacking the blockchain is extremely difficult and a costly process. When it comes to traditional banking, individual entities can collide with each other to make profits at the expense of loss to others. This plot is not possible in the case of a cryptocurrency network, thus offering tolerance to collusion. Apart from all of these, there are many more advantages of a decentralized system over a centralized banking network.

Bottom Line

Therefore, Cryptocurrencies offer plenty of opportunities in today’s digital world, which traditional currency couldn’t provide. We will be further discussing the purpose of cryptocurrency and more properties of cryptocurrency in our upcoming articles. Stay Tuned. Cheers!