Day: July 30, 2017

Not much has changed for most cryptocurrencies over the past few hours. Bitcoin is, together with Monero,  the only currency in the top 10 noting  a small loss, whereas most other coins have stabilized or regained some losses. Considering how the weekend is often a dreadful period for cryptocurrency trading this overall trend is rather positive. The total cryptocurrency market cap is heading toward US$90bn as well, which is a positive sign for the future.

Cryptocurrencies Prepare for a Strong Week

It seems evident most of the top 10 cryptocurrencies are in a good position for some notable gains over the next seven days. Even though we will see one Bitcoin hard fork materialize on August 1st, it is doubtful this will harm the price in a negative manner. Do not be mistaken in thinking Bitcoin Cash tokens come free of charge, though, as they may effectively subtract value from the actual Bitcoin price until the market stabilize.

That being said, we do see the Bitcoin price has dipped a whopping 0.19% over the past 24 hours. That in itself means very little as far as the world’s leading cryptocurrency is concerned. In fact, as long as Bitcoin doesn’t move by 5% or more over the course of 24 hours, there is absolutely nothing to be concerned about. A minuscule change such as this one means absolutely nothing.

Despite the Bitcoin price “dip”, most altcoins are doing quite well. Ethereum is finally showing some life signs after weeks of declines. The 5.67% gain in the past 24 hours is quite substantial, as the price seems to be heading toward US$200 once again. It is still a far cry from US$400, though, and the currency is not out of the woods just yet. Future declines in value may still be  a big part of Ethereum as there is still some funds in circulation which may be dumped across exchanges in the near future.

Other top currencies are showing small gains as well. Litecoin is up by 189%, whereas NEM, Dash, and IOTA all report gains below 1%. The big winners are XRP – up by 3.47% – as well as Stratis – up by 2.99% – and Ethereum Classic, which increased by 1.45%. The bigger question is when people will realize Ethereum Classic is the true, immutable Ethereum chain without SEC scrutiny, highly controversial ICOs, and a blockchain which can be rolled back when founders’ money is stake. Only time will tell if the ETH/ETC correlation will ever see proper momentum, as for now, all the hype and focus is still in Ethereum’s camp.

What is rather surprising is how Monero is the only top 10 currencies to note any losses, other than Bitcoin Monero lost6.41% of its value overnight, which is quite substantial. There is no real reason for this sudden downturn other than people speculating on the other currencies and trying to make a profit. Monero is still a very powerful cryptocurrency with honest developers who aim to provide anonymity to all users. Then again, a price of US$40.65 per XMR is still more than fair, all things considered.

Looking at the individual cryptocurrency market caps, it is pretty obvious Bitcoin remains the undisputed leader for some time to come. This also results in the Bitcoin Dominance Index going back above 50%, as it currently sits at 50.5%. Not too long ago, that percentage was heading toward 40% and lower, but it seems the market has finally come to its senses once again. There is no other currency capable of rivaling Bitcoin right now, that much is evident.

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Android is and will remain the most popular mobile operating system in the world for the foreseeable future. This means there are quite a few low-budget devices available to consumers all over the world. Not all of the companies behind these cheaper options are taking security very seriously. Some low-budget Android devices come with the Triada Trojan as part of their firmware.

Triada Trojan on Android Is a Bad Sign

According to the researchers who discovered this Trojan, the malware has been found as part of the firmware on several low-budget Android smartphones. Among the models affected are Leagoo’s MN5 Plus and M8, as well as Nomu’s S10 and S20. Only a small portion of the available models in circulation is affected by the Triada Trojan, which hints at a supply chain compromise more than anything else.

It is upsetting to see Android devices coming preinstalled with a well-known mobile Trojan. Although the Android ecosystem is prone to malware of all types, malicious software is often installed after the devices are shipped. The affected models mentioned above have some units having Triada as part of their out-of-the-box firmware, which is disconcerting. It is unclear how this occurred exactly, but an investigation is underway.

Triada is an Android Trojan which goes back all the way to March of 2016 when the malware seemingly operated as the average banking Trojan. It remains unknown how much damage this software caused when everything was said and done. Triada since grew to become an all-around threat which could be used for any type of nefarious activity affecting Android users. In some cases, it was used to steal information or login credentials, whereas in other instances it simply aimed to present backdoor access to criminals.

This newer version is designed to automatically receive root access as part of the Zygote core OS process. This means the malware developer could do any type of harm to the infected Android device. This also means the current version is more than capable of stealing credentials or installing additional applications such as malware, ransomware, or other undesirable software.

For the time being, the most logical explanation is that Triada was installed due to a supply chain compromise. It is not the first time such a thing has happened, as we saw a similar compromise in December of 2016. It shows supply chains need to work on becoming a lot more secure in the future.

The bigger question is what can be done to resolve this problem sooner rather than later. It does not appear a patch will be issued to fix the firmware, although that situation may change in the future. Low-budget hardware manufacturers have a reputation to uphold, and they will need to take some course of action to help customers. Leagoo is a well-known brand which has been making waves in the Western world of late. It would be a shame to see companies like it go out of business due to a Trojan.

Most cryptocurrency enthusiasts will no doubt be familiar with the Gemini exchange. The platform is owned by the Winklevoss twins and has attracted a lot of attention from institutional investors over the past few months. The exchange is especially known for its daily Bitcoin auctions. Last night, the company also started providing Ethereum auctions. As it happened, the first one performed abysmally.

First ETH/USD Auction on Gemini is Disappointing

These are very troubled times for Ethereum as a whole. The popular cryptocurrency has lost a fair bit of value over the past few weeks and it appears its downtrend will not be ending anytime soon. Falling from an all-time high of US$400 all the way to around US$185 in a few weeks is not a positive sign for Ethereum. However, Ethereum has been overpriced for quite some time now, especially when considering it was worth just above US$10 as recently as January of this year.

Despite those declines, the Gemini exchange has decided to experiment with ETH/USD auctions. Their auctions allow institutional investors to purchase large amounts of cryptocurrency with U.S. dollars. Its Bitcoin variant has been doing quite well recently, but it too had a mixed performance at the beginning. An average of US$1 million worth of Bitcoin or more being auctioned off every day is not all that uncommon now. There is a growing market for buying large amounts of Bitcoin without placing multiple buy orders on an exchange.

Whether or not the Ethereum auctions will be as successful remains to be seen. The first auction took place last night and attracted very little interest. Only 90 Ethers were sold during the auction, which is less than spectacular. One could even argue it is not worth conducting such an auction in the first place. The first Bitcoin auction, in comparison, raised over US$1 million. However, those auctions were known to draw less attention at certain times as well.

Considering how there will be only one Ethereum auction every day, volume will need to pick up pretty quickly. Gemini currently holds two Bitcoin auctions every single day, raising millions of U.S. dollars daily. If the first Ethereum auction only brought in $17, 400 it clearly shows there is far less interest in Ether compared to Bitcoin. This is not entirely surprising since Ethereum has been declining in value rapidly, both in U.S. dollar and Bitcoin value.

Reddit users are convinced this daily ETH/USD auction volume will not pick up anytime soon. It may be premature to make such bold claims, especially considering this was only the first auction of its kind. One user even claimed that “Ethereum is shit, so no one should be surprised.” That is a very strong sentiment, although there is very little reason for institutional investors to buy Ether other than from a purely speculative perspective. With prices falling, there is no reason to buy Ethereum right now until the markets stabilize.

It will be interesting to see how the daily Gemini Ethereum auctions evolve in terms of value and interest. With the weekend upon us, there will not necessarily be any significant changes over the next few days. We will revisit this topic in a few weeks to make a proper comparison, unless a massive auction were to happen in the meantime. So far, it seems this gamble by Gemini will not be paying off anytime soon, but that does not mean it will always be that way.

July 28th, Shanghai, China, Exchange Union has attracted the support of high profile blockchain companies AlphaPoint, Bloq and RSK Labs ahead of its crowd sale on Aug 7. Exchange Union aims to bridge digital currency exchanges via XUC, aninter-exchange token that allows secure cross-platform trading. Exchange Union has appeal for blockchain technology companies, particularly those … Continue reading Top Blockchain Companies AlphaPoint, Bloq and RSK Labs Show Support for Exchange Union

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Bitcoin Cash has already been a disruptive force within the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency ecosystem. The number of exchanges planning to credit BCH to their users has increased, which is a good sign. However, the number of platforms trading Bitcoin Cash is not necessarily growing. The upcoming Bitcoin hard fork leaves a lot of room for speculation and confusion until the fork effectively happens.

Exchanges Support Bitcoin Cash, Sort of

Not too long ago, we touched upon the topic of which major exchanges had plans to support Bitcoin Cash. At that time, the list was still pretty small and a lot of platforms had yet to render a final decision on the matter. We now have gained some valuable insights as to which platforms will not only credit BCH but trade the currency as well. It is quite interesting to note how very few platforms will seemingly support both for the time being.

It is good to see more exchanges acknowledge that they will successfully credit user account balances. Exchanges have a responsibility to do so, since a lot of Bitcoin holders keep their funds stored on trading platforms for some unknown reason. Doing so for longer periods of time is not the best course of action, and exchanges are not your average Bitcoin wallets by any means.

Struggling to keep track of which exchanges support #BitcoinCash? This table helps break it down. Many exchanges crediting, but not listing pic.twitter.com/90e6shHtiD

— Crypto Facilities (@CryptoFLtd) July 29, 2017

For those people who prefer to keep money in an exchange, now is a good time to determine whether your platform will automatically credit your account accordingly. Contrary to what some people may think, this list is still relatively small. Major exchanges including Bitstamp, Coinbase, GDAX, and ItBit will not automatically credit accounts with Bitcoin Cash. If you have funds on any of these platforms and want your BCH tokens automatically, you’ll need to withdraw your bitcoins to a secure wallet of which only you control the private key.

Gemini has stated they would “try” to credit accounts, although their official stance has yet to be determined. Poloniex is also a “maybe” for now, which will continue to upset a lot of platform users. Kraken has come around and stated that they will issue BCH tokens to all Bitcoin users on its platform. Kraken will also allow the trading of this altcoin, which is positive news in general. Note that not every exchange supporting BCH crediting will enable trading right away.

Bitfinex will potentially enable trading, but not before the fork effectively happens. Gemini has no plans to trade the currency either, whereas OKCoin has yet to render an official statement on the matter. The same applies to BTCC and Quoine, since neither company has acknowledged they would trade Bitcoin Cash anytime soon. It is disturbing for most people to own tokens which must first be transferred off an exchange in order to be traded.

The exchanges that will trade Bitcoin Cash have grown in number as well. Kraken, Huobi, OKEx, Bithumb, and Bittrex have all confirmed they will trade this currency in the near future. That is a sizable collection of platforms. One lingering question is whether or not BTC-E will partake in this token issuance and trading. It seems rather unlikely they will be playing any significant role in the future.

Some welcome the ruling, while others are still on the fence on how this affects the future of ICOs.

Bitcoin emerged as a powerful tool following the economic crisis in 2009, which was driven by poor planning and investment decisions by the US banking sector. There have been numerous instances across the world where economic mismanagement and political apathy towards development have caused hardships to the citizens of various nations. The excessive reliance on … Continue reading European Union’s “Account Freeze” Measure Helps Realize the Importance of Bitcoin

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Both Poloniex and Bitfinex pull out their service from Washington state due to recent legislations and operational license requirements while Gemini stays