Day: August 13, 2017

The Poloniex exchange recently announced that it will finally enable BCH withdrawals on Monday. BreadWallet, the popular Bitcoin iOS wallet, will also support BCH transactions moving forward. It will be interesting to see how things play out for Bitcoin Cash, since there is still a lot of negative animosity toward this project.

Bitcoin Cash Ecosystem Slowly Maturing 

It is good to see support for Bitcoin Cash growing, even though there are still people who feel it to be an abomination. The process of forking off the main Bitcoin blockchain was rather peaceful, though, and there is no real reason for any continued bad blood between the communities. However, it is perhaps difficult to see two currencies utilizing near-identical code bases and similar names, and to not expect some degree of animosity to exist. Bitcoin Cash is an altcoin for now, and no one should have any problem calling it one.

Whether BCH becomes the longer blockchain of the two remains to be seen. The SegWit2x fork, potentially taking place this November, remains a point of contention. Some people feel this will be less of an issue as the Core developers have been making life difficult for supporters of SegWit2x. The upcoming Core Client 0.15.0 will cut off SegWit2x nodes from the main blockchain altogether. This will likely exacerbate the tensions and lead to another Bitcoin blockchain fork, which could have major repercussions for the network as a whole.

The decision to simply reject SegWit2x now that Segregated Witness activity has locked in should not surprise anyone. Everybody knew the support for SegWit2x from most Bitcoin Core supporters was simply a means to an end. SegWit will activate regardless, but the potential increase to 2MB blocks will not be supported by Core. However, the rejection of SegWit2x has already caused a fair bit of controversy.

Some of the world’s largest mining pools support SegWit2x specifically and may not necessarily back down from that concept anytime soon. Though it would make economic sense for them to do so, this “war of scaling solutions” has been going on for quite some time now. If the mining pools really wanted to drive a point home, they would stick with SegWit2x and move their hashpower to the new chain when the November split occurs. At that point things would look pretty bleak for Bitcoin Core. Do keep in mind this is all mere speculation and the end result may be very different from the way things look right now.

On the positive side for Bitcoin Cash, Poloniex will finally enable BCH withdrawals tomorrow. It is unclear what repercussions this will have on the young cryptocurrency. It is possible we will see a BCH trading market in the future as well, although there is still no official word on that. A Poloniex trading market for Bitcoin Cash would be more than welcome, even though we do not advise that users store funds in exchange wallets for longer than absolutely necessary.

BCH support is also coming to the iOS BreadWallet app. Many iOS users utilize this wallet due to its elegance and powerful features. The integration of Bitcoin Cash is a major milestone for the community. Having more wallet support — especially in the mobile department — can only be seen as a good thing. Things are finally coming together for Bitcoin Cash.

Top 4 Cryptocurrencies prices: review and predictions.

The Bitcoin price rollercoaster is once again in full effect these past few hours. After Bitcoin smashes through US$,4000 and even went as high as US$4,137, things have calmed down quite a bit again. In fact, the battle for US$4, 000 is in full effect once again. It will be interesting to see how things play out for Bitcoin, as the bullish moment has to go through a correction sooner or later.

Bitcoin Price Still Hovers Around US$4,000

Every time the Bitcoin price goes through a very bullish period for a prolonged period of time, a correction will not be too far behind. In this particular bull run, that correction seems to be taking place right now. We have seen magnificent Bitcoin price movements over the past week or so, but everyone knows all too well such momentum cannot be maintained indefinitely. Right now one BTC is worth just over US$4,000. but a new all-time high was recorded just a few hours ago.

It is quite remarkable to see how the Bitcoin price has evolved this week alone. Looking back at the charts, one Bitcoin was worth US$3.210 on August 6th which is a week ago. Today, that same Bitcoin has gained nearly 30% in value out of the blue. Despite the Bitcoin price slowly dipping right now, there is no reason to be overly concerned just yet. Corrections take place in the cryptocurrency world all the time and eventually often lead to a new price increase in the future.

No one will be surprised to learn the Korean exchanges are once again dominating the volume. Bithumb is the clear market leader with over US$350m in 24-hour volume. That is a spectacular number for just one platform. The best has yet to come, though, as a total of eight different trading pairs generated over US$100m worth of Bitcoin trading volume in the same 24 hours. That has never been recorded before, indicating a very bullish sentiment as far as BTC is concerned.

It is good to see more fiat currency pairs make up the top 10 of trading markets, though. The only exceptions are Ether, NEO, and Tether USD. This latter currency is pegged to the US Dollar, though, so one could label it as fiat currency trading as well, in an odd way. The fact Bithumb still represents 11.47% of all Bitcoin trades despite being hacked not too long ago speaks volumes of how well the exchange is positioned in the Asian markets these days.

Even though Bitcoin’s price is temporarily reorienting itself, other currencies aren’t taking advantage of the situation by any means. Ethereum is noting a 7.21% decline over the past 24 hours after a few days of uptrend. Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, and NEM aren’t faring much better, as they all record similar losses. Only NEO and IOTA are bucking the trend in this regard, but these two currencies are going through some very bullish movements these days. Both markets above or hovering around a US$2bn market cap as well, mind you.

All things considered, now is the time to hold Bitcoin, even if you missed selling at the previous top. This current momentum has not been recorded before and it is obvious more good things will come in time. Bitcoin has surpassed the US$3bn market in 24-hour trading volume as well, which is another milestone taken care of. No one knows for sure what the future will bring, but it is safe to say people will want to keep an eye on the Bitcoin price for some time to come.

It has been some time since we last heard from OneCoin. The notorious Ponzi scheme is under investigation in several countries including Italy and the United Kingdom. The One Life Network, the company behind OneCoin, has now been fined 2.5 million euros for its misleading promotional campaigns. Slowly but surely, the end is approaching for OneCoin.

OneCoin Faces a Massive Fine in Italy

Governments are not taking kindly to OneCoin. The investment promises its users the stars and the moon if they invest in this program. Investors will not be required to do anything in return for said riches (although recruiting new users is always appreciated and rewarded). According to advertisements running across Italy, investing 27,530 EUR would result in a three million euro payday after two years. It is an appealing but entirely fake offer.

Such false advertising attracted the attention of Italy’s Competition Authority a few months ago. After the organization announced an official investigation regarding this Ponzi scheme, nothing was heard from it for a while. That situation has now changed. The Authority has taken a closer look at OneCoin and the One Life Network, and found its virtual money and training packages to be not entirely transparent. In fact, according to the investigating body, some of the information is outright misleading.

According to the Authority, OneCoin displays myriad “pyramid scheme characteristics.” Users of the scheme have been uttering similar sentiments for quite some time now. The investigative body also seized several OneCoin-related domains registered with Italian service providers. They include the OneCoinItalia and OneCoinItaliaOfficial domain names. It is good to see these getting shut down by government officials.

One of the main reasons why the Competition Authority is not too keen on OneCoin is the latter’s creation of virtual tokens. According to the website, it owns a blockchain system capable of mining OneCoins. These coins are then sold to new users, effectively driving up the value of every coin in circulation. However, users cannot use these coins beyond the One Life Network itself, let alone withdraw them to a private wallet. 

The Italian investigation revealed that none of those claims could be validated at this time. This confirms that there is no blockchain, mining, or even digital currency involved in OneCoin. Instead, users are paid on the basis of recruiting high-profit prospects by ensuring other people will purchase OneCoin packages in the future. That is, of course, a classic Ponzi scheme structure.  Programs like these deserve to be punished, since they will cause lot of unsuspecting people to lose their hard-earned money.

With a 2.595 million EUR fine now due, things are looking rather bleak for OneCoin right now. The company has yet to issue a response regarding these findings. It appears the One Life Network itself must cough up 2 million euros, and the related One Network Services another half a million. Other companies mentioned include Easy Life Srl, OneCoinItalia, OneCoinitaliaOfficial, and OneCoinsuedTirol. A lot of money will need to change hands, although it is highly doubtful that the One Life Network will cough up the funds without a fight. We eagerly await an official statement from the OneCoin team regarding this decision.

It is exciting to hear about cryptocurrency projects disrupting the status quo in many industries and helping consumers save money. One such industry that could use some shaking up is insurance. A project called Umbrella Coin is looking to change the way consumers think about insurance claims. Its goal is to democratize the whole process and provide policyholders with benefits when claim-worthy life events occur. I caught up with the team to ask some questions about the project and the future of Umbrella Coin.

What was the motivation for Umbrella Coin?

“We’re always passionate about disrupting insurance industry,” the team said. They saw the inefficiencies in the insurance industry and wanted to address that. The passage of Obamacare spiked premiums and out-of-pocket spending on the consumer side. For the UMC team, something had to change and they wanted to be that change. After learning about the Blockchain, the team decided to solve “the menace of hidden costs in the insurance industry using Ethereum based technology.”

Are fees and middlemen really the reason insurance premiums cost so much?

“They aren’t the only reason, but paying extra to a sales agent and the administrative costs of processing policies and claims is an easy area to target for improvement with the blockchain.” The team continued, “A big part of high premiums comes from doing risk calculations for higher risk customers. Deductibles increased when insurances couldn’t deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. Another big part is regulatory overhead with regards to compliance matters such as filling tons of paperwork, explanation of benefits, patient privacy.”

The UMC team said they respect the need for the above in order to provide good customer service and user experience, but that there remain too many inefficiencies in these processes. They feel this is especially true for redundant efforts in communication. Smart contracts could help drive down these efforts, and thus the cost of doing business.

Umbrella Coin makes its users both policyholders and insurers who vote on submitted claims. What does the claims voting process look like in laymen’s terms, and how will UMC drive engagement to achieve a quorum on each vote?

“We’ll try to build a reputation-based system to increase voting-based engagement,” the team told me. That system lies a bit further along their road map, though. They elaborated on their immediate plans:

“As of now, we intend to randomly choose a sample of the population for voting on a given anonymous policy and give them a window to vote in (if they can’t, [they] just notify us). Good behavior gets rewarded, negligent behavior has punishment. This also takes care of the problem of rigging the votes, as the individual voters have no control over who they vote for and protects the claim owner’s privacy.”

If UMC holders act initially as insurers and policyholders, what incentivizes them to pay out a claim?

“Ideally, we’d want everyone to know we’re trying everyone on our end to keep solvent, so denying someone else’s legitimate claim doesn’t help their claim in any way.”

However the team recognizes that this may not address everyone’s concerns, so they plan to introduce rewards and punishments.

“We intend to provide some incentives in the form of reduced cooling period, increased maximum amount attainable for good “citizens” of our democracy who execute their civic duty in a timely manner and with good results.”

The team gave me a glimpse of what that might look like.

“For every user, we’d be storing their voting history and would tally it against the outcome of the vote in smart contract itself. If there’s a sharp discrepancy in the alignment of results over a sustained period, we’ll notify the user with a warning.”

This is a really interesting way of encouraging good behavior from users, and the team told me that they may implement a “reputation” scheme in their ecosystem at some point as well.

Would this model work well outside of the U.S. in countries that already have single-payer healthcare? Does UMC want to venture into other kinds of insurance as well?

“Yes definitely we will cover other kinds of insurance. In fact, the name Umbrella Coin is a wordplay, on one side it means ‘for the rainy days’ and on the other hand ‘the one umbrella for all kinds of insurance’ rather than having a separate one for everything.” 

While Umbrella Coin hopes to take on the monopolies in the U.S. healthcare industry, it is far from the only part of the industry they intend to augment, and the U.S. is only one of the countries they feel they can help.

“We’re a diverse team with members who’ve lived in Australia, India, Vietnam, China, Puerto Rico and they provide a good background for expanding our operations outside US to give a good understanding of local markets.”

How does UMC fit into the complicated legal world of insurance, either nationally or on an international scale?

“I’d repeat we’re not insurance, and don’t intend to be soon. We’re complementing them… Since we’re not providing proof of insurance or the same contractual obligation of traditional insurers, we are more insulated from this [insurance regulations] in the short term,” the team explained.

“Our mantra is to get out there and disrupt, make the customers happy, and work with the regulators in ensuring customer privacy and security.”

What do you feel UMC will do for the insurance industry in the next ten years?

“First, it’s going to encourage lower fees and reduced overhead… second, and hopefully because of the reduced overhead, some of the traditional out-of-pocket expenses when filing claims will be lessened or eliminated entirely.”

Umbrella Coin’s team was optimistic about their role in defining the future of the insurance industry:

“The long-term goal for UMC is to automate most of the insurance process today via artificial intelligence and machine learning. We’re going to work on driving down costs even further, while increasing efficiency of the pipeline.”

Overall, this is an incredibly cool project with a great team that is looking to make waves in an industry in dire need of innovation. Their collective experience, ambition, and overall attitude sets them up to be a potentially disruptive force in this industry.

Check out their project here: https://www.umbrellacoin.org/

Read their White paper here: https://github.com/umbrellacoin/umc/blob/master/documents/UMC.pdf

Goldman Sachs has done a complete 180 turn as far as Bitcoin and cryptocurrency are concerned. That is not entirely surprising, as Bitcoin shouldn’t be ignored by anyone. However, the institution is now actively telling their investors not to dismiss Bitcoin any longer. Given the recent price surge, that outcome isn’t surprising by any means. … Continue reading Goldman Sachs Warns Investors Not to Ignore Bitcoin any Longer

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