Day: August 29, 2017

To start off the second day of the week, the bulls decided to crash the party as Bitcoin’s price broke the previous ATH of $4460 and peaked at $4649 on Bitstamp.

Since the beginning of the year, Bitcoin’s price has increase more than 5 times its value. While future price rise isn’t guaranteed, it is highly anticipated. The move to the $4600 levels signals that the market is looking for new support. The $4500 level has been a war zone for the past couple of days, but is now acting as support during the recent price spike.

North Korea-Japan Conflict Fueling Bitcoin Demand

In previous coverage, The Merkle extensively explained the increase in demand towards bitcoin from retail, professional and institutional investors as a safe haven asset and a robust store of value. In times of economic uncertainty and global markets instability, investors in the traditional finance sector prefer to migrate to bitcoin and to the cryptocurrency market to avoid losses.

Two days ago prior to the price spike, prominent financial analyst and the host of RT’s Keiser Report Max Keiser stated that the demand bitcoin will likely rise in the upcoming days due to the rising tension between North Korea and Japan.

“Bitcoin moving higher attracting safe haven money on news of North Korea’s missile launch over Japan,” said Keiser.

Additionally, an increasing number of mainstream media networks in the US, South Korea, Japan and China, four of the world’s largest bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets, have started to extensively report on bitcoin and price trend once again, fueling another upward momentum and strong rally.

“Bitcoin will probably break $5,000 this week, starting a new media blitz, creating new wave of buyers who will power price toward $10,000,” Keiser added.

Analysts including Keiser predicted a new wave of buyers and investors to come into the cryptocurrency market and invest in bitcoin amidst serious global financial instability.

Scaling and Lower Transaction Fees

Even after the completion of the Segregated Witness (SegWit) update, the transaction malleability and scaling solution proposed by the Bitcoin Core development team, many users and investors of bitcoin expressed their concerns in regard to bitcoin’s rising transaction fees.

Although developers such as Jeff Garzik criticized high fees of the bitcoin network, it is important to understand that in order for SegWit to decrease transaction fees, users must deal with SegWit-enabled transactions to begin with.

The first major step towards decreasing transaction fees with SegWit is the adoption and integration of the solution by wallet platforms. Already, Trezor and Ledger, two of the most widely utilized bitcoin hardware wallets in the market, have integrated SegWit. In its recent statement, the Ledger development team stated that users utilizing its SegWit wallet will be able enjoy an immediate 35 percent reduction in transaction fees.

“Segwit introduces the concept of block weight which changes the way the transaction size is computed by splitting the signatures in a different area — you can typically save 35% of the fee paid when sending a transaction immediately,” said Ledger.

With fees and bitcoin blocks optimization in sight due to the integration of SegWit by leading bitcoin wallets, and increasing positive media coverage on bitcoin’s recent rally, it is likely that bitcoin price can achieve a new a new milestone by surpassing the $5,000 mark, as predicted by Keiser.

Technical Analysis

The current RSI is at 74, it just now passed the stable threshold and is hinting at an overbought market. Taking a look at this chart from bitcoincharts we can see that the last time the RSI hovered in the dangerous territory above the 70 level, the price pulled back.

It may be a good idea to keep an eye on the RSI, if it stays above 70 the market is at risk for a replacement.

Representatives from the People’s Bank of China are now visiting the US in an attempt to get up to speed on blockchain tech and regulation.

There has been yet another development in Russia’s relationship with cryptocurrencies. As most people know, the country has never taken kindly to Bitcoin despite showing a keen interest in blockchain technology. It now turns out there is a new plan by Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseev to ban the sale of cryptocurrency to mainstream consumers. That is a very strange and unexpected turn of events. After all, it appeared Russia was on the brink of legalizing Bitcoin not too long ago.

What is Going on in Russia?

It is often difficult to make sense of what Russia is trying to achieve with Bitcoin. The country and its officials have issued multiple conflicting statements regarding the future of cryptocurrencies. Their latest update makes no sense either, although it remains to be seen if its provisions will play out. Moiseev’s proposal declares cryptocurrency to be a pyramid scheme, and the sale of Bitcoin to regular consumers to be prohibited.

The proposal is the outcome of a recent interview given by Moiseev to Rossiya 24, a well-known Russian television channel. Officials have offered conflicting opinions on how Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies should be treated in the future. Considering how regulating cryptocurrency itself is impossible regardless of Russia’s wishes, taking an offensive stance appears to be the country’s strategy for the time being.

Deputy Finance Minister Moiseev is a clear proponent of enabling Bitcoin purchases for qualified investors only. This is a very broad definition, but it does seem to exclude most mainstream consumers. After all, there are no guidelines as to how one qualifies as an investor in the first place. Vague statements like these do not make any sense, yet it remains to be determined how Russia plans to address this situation moving forward.

Moiseev feels Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies pose a legitimate threat to everyday consumers from an investment point of view. Deeming the average consumer too stupid to make his or her own decisions about investing in Bitcoin seems pretty harsh. It is certainly true investing in cryptocurrencies could lead to financial loss, but there is no reason to think people cannot judge that risk on their own.

This statement comes just weeks after Russia announced its plan to invest in a Bitcoin mining operation. If the country’s leadership does not believe cryptocurrencies are a safe investment, then why set up a Bitcoin mining operation? Perhaps the government feels cryptocurrency is something to which only the elite should have access, whereas the rest of the population need not bother. Whether or not that proposal will ever become a reality, however, remains to be seen.

There will always be a dysfunctional relationship between certain Russian government officials and the rest of the world. This is especially obvious when it comes to cryptocurrencies and any other investment the government cannot immediately control. Given Russia’s interest in blockchain technology and the concept of potentially issuing its own national digital currency, things may not turn out all that bad. Only time will tell what the future will bring, but for now, it does not look like any major changes will occur.

Banco de la Republica Colombia, the South American nation’s central bank, has officially joined the R3 distributed ledger consortium.

Bitcoin has hit a new highest-ever price of $4576 as enthusiasm builds for $5000 target.

Cryptocurrency exchanges have multiple responsibilities to take into account at all times. Their top priority should always be coming up with new ways to ensure that customer funds are completely safe from harm. The Bittrex exchange is doing exactly that, as they have now made two-factor authentication mandatory for all user accounts. Given the mounting number of cryptocurrency-related phishing scams, that was a smart decision. Keep in mind that this form of 2FA requires email confirmation, and keeping your email account secure is still your own responsibility.

More Security for Bittrex Users is a Good Thing

Cryptocurrency users are very popular targets for cybercriminals, and we’re not just talking about malware and ransomware attacks. So many people expose their exchange account information without being aware of it. It also appears very few exchanges require two-factor authentication, which is a big problem that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. Right now, the Bittrex platform is taking matters into its own hands, which is a smart move by the company. After all, they want to maintain their dominant market position for quite some time to come.

Bittrex has been gaining in popularity in general over the past few months. Although Poloniex was always considered to be the world’s preeminent cryptocurrency exchange – particularly for altcoins – its status is not what it used to be. The company has been dealing with so many issues this year, many people have simply given up on the platform altogether. Meanwhile, Bittrex is slowly becoming the market leader, as that exchange seemingly has no issues remaining online during times of increased trading volume.

Now that Bittrex is taking major steps to protect customers even more, there is literally no reason to use Poloniex other than for lending purposes. Bittrex now makes email 2FA mandatory for all accounts to prevent its users from falling victim to one of the many current phishing scams. Given the increasing number of exchange-related phishing scams of late, requiring 2FA authentication is a smart decision by the exchange team. Although verification will be sent via email, it is a good first step. Users can still enable mobile 2FA on their accounts as well if they wish to do so, which is an absolute must in this day and age.

Cryptocurrency exchanges have been somewhat slow to embrace 2FA. There are virtually no platforms which make this a mandatory feature for some reason. Considering how customers are being targeted by phishing scams more often than ever before, one would expect changes like this one to have become the norm by now. Bittrex is certainly setting a precedent for other companies in this regard. It is good to see at least one major exchange taking customer security seriously. We can only hope this will prevent people from losing money due to hacking and phishing activity.

At the same time, however, cryptocurrency exchanges such as Bittrex can only do so much. While they protect their platforms against phishing attacks, customers need to do the same. Email 2FA is not a foolproof method by any means, even though the additional layer of security is helpful. Exchange users have to ensure their email accounts have secure passwords to keep hackers out as well. Without taking this precaution, the additional layer of authentication could still be circumvented by attackers with relative ease.

By the way, coming up with a secure password for an email account is less difficult than one might expect. We put together some quick tips not long ago. It is good to see companies like Bittrex pave the way for tighter security for its users. It is now up to said users to go the rest of the way. Account security should never be taken lightly, as it is the last line of defense between criminals and one’s account balances.

sponsored

Can Blockchain help your local farmers and communities?

Ethereum.link is the link between crypto-currency and international silver market, it is projected to grow into a large and decentralized platform for digital silver certificates trading. The platform offers a digital Token backed with real .999 physical silver to add a whole new level of security to modern crypto currency trading. Physical silver will be acquired, transported and kept with the highest levels of safety available.

With Link goal to be the choice number one among users wanting to invest in a backed crypto-currency: Link image has changed during this month, Link has evolved with a new image according to what they want to achieve, with these changes they want to provide a friendly invite to any user that is familiarized or not with blockchain technology.

“I believe that as we are developing in a fast changing environment as it is the blockchain space; there is the need of proyecting a renewed public image in order to reveal new changes the platform and team are developing, we’ll always do any needed step in order to stay at the top of our schedule.” -Alexander Dawson, Link Platform CTO.

Link aims to be a versatile platform built in Ethereum network where user can trade backed tokens with real .999 silver bars at the minimum fees possible due to its decentralized nature, the platform aims to add more assets once silver is stable in the market.

Among other changes, they have also announced an innovative Staking system that will reward physical silver to their owners, this is the first time a crypto-currency or Token creates a PoS network that rewards a physical good instead of the crypto-currency itself.
The Staking System will go live during this month and aims to provide a liquid market for every Token holder.Media Contacts:
Company name: Ethereum Link

Link Homepage: https://ethereum.link

Link Blog: https://medium.com/@ethlink

Email: [email protected]

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of any Merkle employees. This is not investment or trading advice; always do your own independent research.

BetKing has been one of the leading Bitcoin gambling platforms in the industry until it temporarily shut down its operations late last year. Since then, the creators of the platform been working on an updated version with a variety of features. As the platform gets ready for release, it is presently in the midst of … Continue reading BetKing ICO Raises Close to $5 Million

The post BetKing ICO Raises Close to $5 Million appeared first on NEWSBTC.

Solidity is the main coding language for everything related to Ethereum. Although it is not the most convenient language to learn, let alone master, it does allow developers from all over the world to pick it up pretty quickly. However, there is also the Viper language, which has undergone some major breakthroughs lately. It is doubtful Viper will ever replace Solidity as Ethereum’s main coding language, but that does not mean it is a useless project right now. In fact, the roadmap features outlined by its team are quite promising.

Viper is a Coding Language With Potential

Most non-developers will likely have never heard of the Viper project, which should not come as a big surprise. After all, everyone associates Ethereum-based coding with Solidity, which is the primary programming language for this particular ecosystem. Solidity is not that easy to pick up when it comes to more advanced features, but it is still quite approachable for aspiring developers and people who want to build great Ethereum applications. However, Solidity is not the only coding language one should be paying attention to these days.

Viper is a project created by the Ethereum team around 10 months ago. Although its GitHub repository is not as well-maintained as Solidity’s, there is a lot of merit to this coding language. Granted, it is an experimental programming language and should always be treated as such. It has some interesting features, including decidability, support for signing integers, and bounds and overflow checking. All of these features provide value to developers all over the world. Moreover, it is an alternative way to start building projects for the Ethereum ecosystem in the future.

That being said, the development of Viper is not being funded all that well right now. It is more of a voluntary project than anything else, although it still has commits made to it on a regular basis. It is certainly not designed to replace Solidity now or in the future, even though some users may feel it certainly has the potential to do so in the long run. However, the Viper language is far from complete and there is still a lot of work to be done. Still, it is a great coding language that should not be overlooked by anyone.

The project is receiving more contributions from outside developers than ever before. This further confirms there is a genuine interest in the development of this coding language, although there is no official timeline to ensure the programming language ever gets “finished.” It is possible Viper may never become a proper programming language to the degree that Solidity is, but it has some features that will attract certain types of contributors regardless.

Viper does not allow for the calling of methods or other smart contracts. That in itself is a major limiting factor as to how useful this coding language is right now. These features will be added eventually, although that may take a few years or perhaps even longer. Without tools, tutorials, or non-basic examples to go by, venturing into the language of Viper may prove to be quite challenging even to the more experienced coders out there. Then again, having multiple options is never a bad thing, especially when it comes to programming languages.

Last but not least, there is a small development roadmap for Viper moving forward. Declaring external contracts ABIs and calling to external contracts is a main priority. The team will also focus on smart optimization of different natures. It is good to see Ethereum users have several coding languages to choose from, even though one has a lot more potential compared to the other right now. In a few years, Viper may well have become the go-to coding language for Ethereum.

On September 7, Stockholm will host the exhibition of equipment for the cryptocurrency industry within Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Stockholm. Visitors will be able to attend companies’ stands, see innovative software and hardware in operation, talk to developers and find partners for implementing new ideas. Exhibiting companies integrate the blockchain and cryptocurrency into various sectors. … Continue reading Blockchain conference attendees to see newest hardware and software for their projects in Stockholm 

The post Blockchain conference attendees to see newest hardware and software for their projects in Stockholm  appeared first on NEWSBTC.