Day: August 20, 2017

There are many different projects in blockchain technology and the Ethereum ecosystem. BlockCAT is one of the more intriguing projects for people who wish to explore the concept of smart contracts. Right now, creating or managing a smart contract requires some advanced knowledge of the Solidity language. BlockCAT makes that a lot easier by removing the need for programming altogether.

Smart Contract Deployment Without Coding

It always sounds intriguing when someone says you can wield innovative technology without having any previous knowledge. Hardly any consumer knows how to build applications for a smartphone, but thanks to convenient user interfaces, we can do the most amazing things with apps these days. The same concept might soon apply to smart contracts, a new type of technology gaining in popularity mostly thanks to the Ethereum ecosystem. However, the technology is not unique to Ethereum, and it will soon be available to Bitcoin users as well.

BlockCAT wants to play a big role in the world of smart contracts moving forward. This particular project aims to make the technology more accessible to everyday users, regardless of their previous coding knowledge. Users would not require any programming skills whatsoever to deploy smart contracts using this new platform. This may be a game changer since it will allow users to deploy pre-built smart contracts in mere seconds. Additionally, they could build their own contracts in mere minutes, making the whole process a lot smoother.

Bringing such a powerful platform to the world will not be an easy feat. Smart contracts are still an immature form of technology, even though they have the power to change every aspect of the world as we know it today. It is certainly more cost-effective to use a service that does not require people to hire programmers for whatever they are looking to build. Additionally, the BlockCAT team will thoroughly test all contracts and have them audited by security experts. It is good to see the team acknowledge this technology is not risk-free by any stretch of the imagination.

Looking at the bigger picture, it only makes sense to provide the service offered by BlockCAT at this time. After all, there is no industry which would not benefit from smart contracts, even though that does not necessarily mean all businesses will embrace them in the coming years. Smart contracts are cheap, effortless, manageable on both computers and mobile devices, and has many other traits people will appreciate. Anything related to administration, automatic payments, recurring payments, and other types of system applications can all be built using smart contracts. More automation is never a bad thing in the business sector.

Even people looking to simply buy and sell goods or services online should look into smart contracts. It can act as an escrow without having a human entity presiding over funds. This technology has many different use cases, and BlockCAT facilitates the deployment of this technology in mere minutes. For now, the platform is still in the alpha stage and a lot of updates will take place in the years to come. The technology is well within reach, which is the first big step toward creating a safer future. It will be interesting to see whether this particular company is successful.

Services such as BlockCAT show the technology we have in our hands and how it can potentially be used. Making the deployment and creation of smart contracts more convenient can only be a good thing for this technology in the long run. Its alpha platform is focusing on some interesting smart contracts already, including security deposits and locking up Ether balances through a certain date. Other solutions such as distributed payments and joint payments will be added soon. It is definitely a platform worth keeping an eye on.

Machine learning is one of the more competitive technology industries right now. Google and Propublica are partnering up to use this technology as a way to track hate crimes across the United States. It is an interesting concept, especially considering how the documentation of hate crimes in America has been quite problematic for some time now. Whether or not this machine learning-based venture will change matters remains to be seen.

Documenting U.S. Hate Crimes With Machine Learning

Recordkeeping is always a controversial concept where crime is concerned. Various details are often never documented at all, or are documented inaccurately. Coming up with a solution to tackle this problem is not so easy. Now that we live in a digital age, one would expect recordkeeping to become less problematic. Sadly, that is not the case. In fact, it seems this area has devolved into a mixture of proper documentation and patchy work.

When it comes to documenting and tracking hate crimes across the U.S., a lot of work needs to be done. Given recent activity across the country involving potential hate crimes, keeping track of these important moments in history becomes all the more important. Google and Propublica have acknowledged that a solution has to be created, and they want to be the ones to find that solution. The companies plan to jointly use machine learning as a tool to document these crimes. Artificial intelligence  has never been used for this particular purpose, yet it seems rather straightforward to do so.

The Documenting Hate News Index will scour the web for news articles involving hate crime. It will then collect that information and attempt to build a bigger picture. It will only work with a raw feed of Google News articles, which will then be put through the Google Cloud Natural language API to create a visual tool. This information will be updated continuously and in real time.

It will be interesting to see how this tool performs in the coming months and years. Aggregating articles from different sources based on hate crime, bias, or abuse will yield some results very few people expect. It could also point to many of these crimes effectively taking place without most people even being aware of them. The end results from the Documenting Hate News Index will inevitably shock a lot of U.S. citizens and probably make them uncomfortable.

This new platform only dates back to February of this year. That may not seem like the most comprehensive point of reference to start with, but there is only so much information to be aggregated right now. It is possible both companies will expand their range as the project progresses. For now, the focus lies solely on collecting information related to the previous six months. One thing to take into account is how a lot of hate crimes are never reported by the mainstream media in the first place. This tool may be able to find some information on smaller blogs, however, as long as they are indexed by Google News.

It is refreshing to see emerging technologies such as machine learning and AI being used for positive purposes. Rather than worrying about the financial sector or autonomous vehicles, it is due time we started addressing some of the problems prevalent in our society today. Hate crimes are a very big problem, including in the United States. We can only hope Google’s new tool will be helpful for all parties involved, including journalists and researchers.

Cryptocurrency cloud mining has always been problematic, both for companies and customers alike. Nearly every company in this industry is or turns into a major Ponzi scheme at some point. One of the few legitimate companies to date is Genesis Mining, but it looks like some of its customers are not too sure about the future of the platform. Genesis Mining’s recent payment issues and unfortunate hack have caused some delays, but the company is not going anywhere anytime soon.

Genesis Mining Fights an Uphill Battle

Pleasing cryptocurrency customers is virtually impossible, as every individual has different expectations and desires. Accommodating all of them is not feasible any longer, especially for cloud mining businesses. Genesis Mining is a solid company, and I know its CEO personally. There is no reason for this company to start scamming its users or pay them out less than expected.

The most often heard complaint about Genesis Mining is how its cryptocurrency cloud mining service is not necessarily profitable. That may certainly be the case, as customers buy into a one-year contract — or longer — without knowing what the future holds. The company provides its rates of return and fees upfront, which allow for some basic calculations to be made. In most cases those calculations turn out positive, but they do not necessarily take fluctuations into account.

There are other factors to take into account when it comes to cloud mining. First of all, there is the value of the cryptocurrency in question. Bitcoin and Ethereum fluctuate wildly in value, virtually every single day. A cloud mining company cannot control those prices, and if a major dump occurs, it is not at fault if customers earn less than expected. That is par for the course with any investment, but even more common in the cryptocurrency world. Signing up with a cloud mining service is a gamble with some calculations to back it up, but absolutely no guarantees.

Secondly, mining difficulty adjustments play an integral role in the process as well. Depending on how much mining power is present on the network at any given time, earnings from Genesis Mining may be higher or lower than previously expected. Once again, that is part of the gamble you take by signing up for cloud mining, and not something the company can control. Though it can be frustrating for customers to deal with, that goes on with every legitimate cloud mining company.

A recent Reddit post proclaimed that Genesis Mining had turned into a Ponzi scheme. The poster claimed this had occurred unwittingly, mainly due to the recent backlog in payments. Those payments were effectively delayed due to a hack that had emptied the company’s hot wallet a few weeks ago. Ever since then, Genesis Mining has been reimbursing clients, which is a painstaking process. Its daily payouts are not fully back just yet, but the team is working on it. Claiming that the company had pooled together money and built a mining farm to raise more money and buy more hardware is not necessarily false. However, that does not make them a Ponzi scheme, notwithstanding claims by this Redditor of having “no reserves”.

Indeed, there are a lot of wild — and often baseless —  theories floating around on the internet about Genesis Mining. It is also true the company may be dealing with a host of issues for which they were unprepared. However, there is no clear evidence of Genesis Mining having willfully defrauded its users. Not everything in the world goes as we would like it to, but that should not surprise anyone. Cryptocurrency cloud mining is a difficult business even when coin prices are on the rise. Everyone wants their ROI in six months or less, but they do not always take external factors into account.

With so many people paying attention to Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash right now, one would almost forget Dash has reached a new all-time high as well. It is the first time this popular altcoin saw its value rise to $300 and above. It is evident good and exciting things are happening in the world of Dash right now, even though few people seemingly pay attention to it right now. It will be interesting to see if it can get into the top 5 based on market cap, as the competition is heating up in this regard.

Dash Reaches new All-Time High of $307

It is quite remarkable to see how things have changed in the world of Dash. This privacy-centric cryptocurrency has been around for several years now and has one of the more solid reputations in the innovation department. Several of its features have gotten a lot of positive attention, including the InstantSend feature for anonymous transactions.

Moreover the Dash wallet for iOS has been approved recently and there will be  a Dash-oriented conference in a few weeks from now. All of this goes to show things are evolving at an accelerated pace as far as Dash is concerned. It is certainly possible the currency will follow a similar price path like Ethereum did earlier this year. A value of $400 per Dash would not be entirely overvalued by any means, as it is evident the currency has a lot of value to the right people. Plus, there are just over 7.5 million coins in circulation, which is a lot lower than most other currencies, including Bitcoin.

One has to keep in mind this low supply also paints a skewed picture when looking at the Dash market cap. Despite a value of $298.19 per Dash right now, the total market cap is still below $2.5bn. That means Dash is only the eighth-largest cryptocurrency when looking at things from a market cap perspective. That is not entirely fair, to be honest, although it is the way things are calculated in the world of cryptocurrency. Real Dash supporters will not be concerned over this ranking by any means, though.

There are a few different exchange platforms pushing up the Dash price as we speak. No one will be surprised Bithumb – of all exchanges-  has the most volume for Dash right now. Bithumb has been quite bullish for all currencies they support right now, including Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and to a certain degree, Bitcoin itself as well. Right now, Bithumb is generating over 43% of all Dash trading volume, which is more than twice as much compared to Poloniex and over four times the volume of Bittrex. An intriguing development, to say the least.

As one would come to expect, the Bitcoin trading markets are bringing in a lot of volume for Dash, although there is some solid USD and USDT trading volume as well. That is quite interesting to see, as it also shows a lot of people put their faith in USD Tether these days. It is a digital representation of the US Dollar value, thus it makes sense it grows a lot more popular as time progress. A lot of exchanges support USDT trading markets for the top cryptocurrencies as well.

All things considered, things are looking extremely good for Dash and its supporters right now. Whether or not the Dash price will continue to go up in the coming days and weeks, is hard to predict. It is certainly possible we will see some more price gains over the coming weeks leading up to the conference. Some interesting announcements should be made at that time as well, although it is unclear what the future will hold. It is certainly worth keeping your eye on the Dash price.

The rise of cybercrime on Ethereum.

The cryptocurrency has previously reached an all-time high of $9.3 per token recently, but this came down to $7.9 and has recently recovered to $8.02, as of press time.

There are so many different types of Bitcoin ransomware in circulation today that it is hard to find one that is unique. Shinigami Locker is not necessarily unique based on its features, but the artwork used in the ransom note is quite nice to look at. Fans of the Death Note anime and manga will certainly recognize the style of the note, as none other than Ryuk makes an appearance. This type of malware was created by a fan of this manga, and it remains to be seen whether the former will be distributed on a global scale in the future.

Shinigami Locker Wants a $50 Payment

Every time a new type of Bitcoin ransomware comes around, there is reason for concern. There are some emerging trends in the world of malware development which do not bode well for people who must deal with these types of malicious software. One such trend is malware which encrypts computer files and wipes all of their data. Even with a decryption key, the files are rendered useless since their internal data has been overwritten by bogus code. Thankfully, it does not appear Shinigami Locker falls into this category.

Rather, it is a new type of ransomware that does just what everyone would expect it to do — distribute itself through an email spam campaign. So far, we have not seen any torrent or file sharing distribution for this malware, although this situation could change. It does appear Shinigami Locker could be distributed on an international scale in the future, as the ransom note is written in plain English rather than a less ubiquitous language.

Every file encrypted by this malware will receive a custom “.shinigami” file extension. For now, it appears the only way to decrypt files is by paying the ransom of US$50 in Bitcoin. Restoring files from a previous backup is not possible, as the malware alters the information pertaining to the shadow volume copies. That is a common trend in ransomware these days, as criminals aim to prevent any “cheap tricks” by victims at any cost.

Once the ransomware has done its job, it will also change the wallpaper on the victim’s computer. Fans of the Death Note manga will recognize Ryuk in the middle of the picture, as it makes for some nice artwork. Unfortunately, this is not a wallpaper people want to deal with for longer than absolutely necessary, as their entire computer becomes pretty much useless in the process. It does not appear any communication between victim and criminal takes place, indicating this malware relies on a centralized command & central server.

For the time being, Shinigami Locker is not that much of a threat. It has a dedicated email spam campaign, which is a popular distribution method for many ransomwares, malwares, and banking Trojans. There is no reason to think this particular type will be more successful than others, as it has no particular tricks up its sleeve compared to competing payloads. Since we do not know which regions are being targeted by this campaign, it is difficult to predict its eventual impact. Beware of any emails from unknown senders containing email attachments, as that is the main distribution method of any ransomware type.

On an artistic note, Shinigami Locker boasts some nice artwork and lacks the bland images common in other malware strains. Fans of the Death Note manga will certainly see the appeal of the aforementioned wallpaper. It is never good to see such popular shows and series being used in a destructive way, though. Technically speaking, there is nothing that makes Shinigami Locker unique or especially dangerous, but it could certainly prove to be a nuisance. Indeed, this is just one more type of malware to be wary of, as the ransomware industry continues to grow every single week.

The past few hours have been pretty interesting for cryptocurrency supporters. After two days of Bitcoin price declines, things are slowly rebounding with a 0.84% gain. Bitcoin Cash, on the other hand, lost 12.5% in value even though it is far more profitable to mine right now. Other cryptocurrencies making big moves include IOTA, NEM, Dash, and OmiseGo. It is evident the weekend is only  a snapshot of how trading markets work, but this Sunday proves to be particularly interesting, to say the least.

Bitcoin Price Shows Signs of a Small Rebound

Ever since the Bitcoin price surpassed the $4,000 mark, people have been overly excited about what the future would hold. At one time, it looked as if the Bitcoin price would hit $4,500 and possibly even more. Those dreams were crushed pretty quickly though, as the Bitcoin price started showing signs of a potential correction. Things have not turned out overly bad these past few days, although maintaining the $4,100 mark has been quite difficult all weekend. Right now, we see  a small nudge upward thanks to a 084% gain over the past 24 hours.

Moreover, the Bitcoin trading volume remains above the $2bn mark for several days now, which is rather impressive. Keeping in mind how weekends often see less than $1bn in trading volume for Bitcoin, this weekend proves to be something else entirely in a good way It is good to see so many people still focus on the world’s leading cryptocurrency, even though it has some stiff competition from Bitcoin Cash these past few days.

Speaking of which, the Bittrex BCC/BTC market is the main driver of Bitcoin trading volume right now. This goes to show a lot of people are flipping Bitcoin Cash back and forth in an effort to increase their Bitcoin holdings. So far, these efforts aren’t as rewarding, though, as BCH shows no signs of buckling at this point. Despite a lot of pressure on the exchanges in terms of sell orders and random coin dump periods, Bitcoin Cash has proven to be quite resilient. Interestingly enough, there are four Bitcoin Cash-related markets in the top 7 as far as Bitcoin trading volume is concerned.

Other markets in the top 10 include USD, KRW, and CNY trading pairs It is evident the main focus is on Bitcoin Cash right now, rather than converting fiat currencies to and from Bitcoin. Not necessarily a trend to be concerned about right now, though, as this is somewhat common in the world of Bitcoin trading during weekends. Bithumb is still in the top five of markets, though, which is good to see. Two Chinese exchanges in the top 10 is also  a positive sign. Interestingly enough, Huobi lists the Bitcoin price as $4,436.50 right now. A large premium compared to the market average, to say the least.

For now, it is a bit unclear as to what the future holds for the Bitcoin price right now. It is evident there is still a lot of room for upward momentum, although the market is showing some bearish signals as well. Then again, that is only to be expected, as the Bitcoin price has gone through a massive bull run over the past few weeks. In fact, it has done so throughout all of the year 2017. A correction will need to occur at some point, although it is always hard to predict how steep that correction will be. Right now, it is a dip of around 7%, although it is not necessarily the last correction in the coming weeks.

If the trading volume remains in place for Bitcoin, there is no reason for concern whatsoever. A $2bn volume on a Sunday is pretty uncommon for cryptocurrency markets in general. For Bitcoin, it is slowly becoming the new normal, which paints a positive outlook for the future. Bitcoin Cash is doing its own thing and is no real threat for Bitcoin itself. The only threat to that ecosystem is SegWit2x and people bickering over implementing a scaling solution with a block size increase attached to it. It will be interesting to see how things evolve, but for now the Bitcoin price is doing just fine.

Can you really entrust your Bitcoin to hardware wallets?

Cryptocurrency ATMs are an intriguing way to introduce everyday consumers to Bitcoin. Having a convenient way and interface to purchase Bitcoin with cash has been somewhat successful, even with the higher fees common among ATMs. It now appears the Ethereum ATMs are trying to make an impact as well. Toronto has seen their first few machines of this kind installed earlier this week. It is an interesting idea, but can it gain any traction?

Ethereum ATMs Arrive in Toronto

Some Bitcoin ATM manufacturers are looking to start supporting altcoins as well. Lamassu seems to be leaning toward introducing altcoin support in the near future. We have documented how some altcoins are somewhat popular in the ATM scene, although Ethereum was not doing all too well at that time. It seemed there was a large demand for Litecoin, but other alternative cryptocurrencies were not getting much love from the average person.

LocalCoinATM thinks now is the time to bring Ethereum ATMs to the masses. The company unveiled a few different machines spread out across Toronto in Canada. Several locations now support Ethereum, although the company has a few machines which did not receive this update yet. It will be interesting to see if this venture will be successful. Some people have a tough time wrapping their head around Bitcoin. They may struggle with an alternative currency which is even more technology-oriented than the king of cryptocurrencies.

The decision to introduce these Ethereum ATMs in Toronto is calculated. The city is well-known for its Ethereum Meetups and activity surrounding this particular cryptocurrency. Vitalik Buterin also lived in Canada and was an active member of the Toronto Bitcoin scene before he started developing Ethereum a few years ago. The city is home to a few different cryptocurrency ATMs, most of which are operated by LocalCoinATM. Adding Ether support to six of these machines will be an intriguing experiment.

Ethereum’s price is also a driving factor for this sudden decision. Throughout the year 2017, the price of Ether has surged quite a bit. Going from under $20 to nearly $400 in the span of a few months has brought a lot of positive attention to this particular ecosystem. Ever since that time, the Ethereum price has declined a bit, but it is going back up slowly these past few days. This means more people may start to pay attention to Ethereum and could even end up purchasing a small amount of this cryptocurrency. An Ethereum ATM would be a more convenient way, instead of signing up for an exchange and going through a lengthy verification process.

The usefulness of cryptocurrency ATMs has yet to be proven. Although we are big fans of this concept, the rest of the world is less than amused by the concept of buying Bitcoin -or Ethereum– from a machine that accepts cash payments. Cryptocurrency is still a niche market dominated by speculators and people who can manipulate prices. The real-life use cases for Bitcoin and Ethereum are very limited at best. Then again, that situation could change overnight and people will be glad there are cryptocurrency ATMs around when this shift happens.

Having a wider variety of cryptocurrency ATMs is a good idea, although it remains to be sene if there is any demand for it in the first place. So far, it seems LocalCoinATM is trying to remain ahead of market demand and ensure the infrastructure is in place first and foremost. We wish them the best of luck with this effort, as it certainly has a lot of potential for the long run. Ethereum is finding its own place in the cryptocurrency and will always have its loyal supporters. The bigger question is whether or not we will see other Ethereum ATMs around the world in the future.

Cryptocurrency exchanges have always been pretty odd creatures. More specifically, they are centralized entities whom people trust with their cryptocurrency balances. These companies also vowed never to list any contentious hard fork coins on their platforms. As we all know by now, that has not been the case whatsoever. Any hard fork on the BTC … Continue reading What Happened to the Promise by Exchanges not to List Contentious Hard Fork Currencies?

The post What Happened to the Promise by Exchanges not to List Contentious Hard Fork Currencies? appeared first on NEWSBTC.

Several members of the US Congress are drafting legislation that is intended to recognize certain digital currencies and protect them against interference from the federal government.