Day: September 15, 2017

Chinese news reports that two of the country’s largest exchanges have been given an extra month to operate domestically. It appears OKCoin and Huobi will be allowed to continue offering services until October 31, 2017. This corresponded with an instant upswing in crypto markets with Bitcoin alone gaining $400 in just minutes. However, there is … Continue reading OKCoin Suspends Domestic Trading, Receives Extension to Operate for Another Month alongside Huobi

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The way we exchange digital assets and cryptocurrencies will undergo some radical changes in the future. In the case of Ethereum, multiple projects are working on this and finding it to be much easier said than done. ConsenSys, a respected entity in the Ethereum development world, has come up with a peer-to-peer exchange protocol known as Swap.

Swap Will Change the way we Exchange Assets

Using a centralized platform to exchange cryptocurrencies is not as fun or convenient as it could be. There is a distinct trade-off between being in control of your funds and using a service which does all of the legwork. This new breed of digital assets was designed to put customers in control of their money in the first place. However, that option is not there with centralized platforms. The companies are the custodians of your money at all times.

A decentralized solution for exchanging cryptocurrencies and digital assets will come to fruition at some point in the future. Some of these projects exist already, but they have experienced difficulty gaining traction. A project such as Coinffeine, for example, is what decentralized peer-to-peer exchanges may look like in a few years from now. The only downside is how people must run the software on their computer in order to perform exchanges, whereas a normal exchange is seemingly always accessible.

Thankfully, various developers around the world have been coming up with new ideas for creating P2P exchange protocols. Swap is one of the latest projects, having been developed by the Ethereum development community known as ConsenSys. Swap is a new protocol which seeks to facilitate the trustless exchange of various assets using the Ethereum network. Users will no longer need to use centralized exchanges or over-the-counter settings whatsoever.

Although this concept is still just a white paper at this point, it is obvious some people will compare it to 0x. The latter protocol was also recently introduced and focuses on decentralized exchange services as well. A decentralized order book, such as that used by 0x, is quite significant. Swap, on the other hand, will connect buyers and sellers directly, removing the need for any exchange-like structure.

It appears ConsenSys has put together some code to power the Swap protocol, though it has not been made open source at this time. Right now, the plan is to keep improving the code base and release it to the public at “some point in the future.” For now, the main focus is bringing additional developers on board to continue developing this new protocol and introducing additional features and tools. Making Swap as extensible as possible will take months – if not years – to finish.

All of this goes to show that decentralized exchange solutions will take over from their centralized counterparts at some point. This is good news for all cryptocurrency and digital asset enthusiasts. We need some new solutions to cut out intermediaries at every possible turn. Swap may be the solution that finally brings this concept to the masses, although it is still too early to tell what the future may hold for this project. We look forward to seeing the source code being made public.

Any investor needs to do extensive research before betting real money into ICOs.

Floyd Mayweather is stepping up his support of cryptocurrencies, promoting his third initial coin offering (ICO) in the past month.

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Recently, cryptocurrency markets have been an absolute roller coaster. Just a week and a half ago, Bitcoin was valued at US$5,000, and at the time of writing it stands at US$3,460.01. Since then, there have been rumors from China, exchanges suspending trades, and CEOs attacking Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general. Let’s take a look at some of these events and suss out the current State of the Coin.

China is not Banning Bitcoin, Despite What People Think

One of the most obvious reasons for the downturn in the market is China. The Chinese government, in concert with the People’s Bank of China, issued a far-reaching condemnation and banning of cryptocurrency ICOs. While the ICO market probably is bloated and some regulations needed to be put forth, an outright ban dealt a devastating blow to cryptocurrency prices, particularly Ethereum – one of the primary assets utilized by ICOs – and Bitcoin. Each saw their value drop by large margins.

With BTCC announcing a suspension of trades, the issue only worsened. All this talk of bans and exchange closures are rumors, yet they have taken their toll on the price. This is not the first time – and I promise it will not be the last – we hear that China is planning to ban Bitcoin. However, BTCC’s latest announcement has definitely fueled the panic we are seeing in many investors and traders currently, which in turn impacts the price. While BTCC’s decision was voluntary, it has concerned many people.

Jamie Dimon Calls Bitcoin a “Fraud”

Pretty much everyone who is interested in cryptocurrencies or remotely interested in finance has by now heard about Jamie Dimon’s verbal thrashing of Bitcoin. The bankster termed it a “fraud” and compared it to some pyramid schemes. He also claimed that investors and money entering the cryptocurrency market really only benefited those who are already invested. While it is true that individuals who bought Bitcoin or other cryptos when the price was lower benefit from higher prices driven by new investment, this is how markets work. It is the same reason why people who purchased or were issued Google stock at its beginning are millionaires now. While I am sure Dimon is an intelligent person and obviously has business acumen, I truly believe he is wrong here. Bitcoin is no fraud.

John McAfee provided an eloquent rebuttal to Dimon’s accusation in a CNBC interview. In it, he explained that he sees Bitcoin as having value based on its use cases, its decentralization, and the fact that people continually mine it. Considering it costs over US$1,000 to mine a block, clearly Bitcoin has to be worth something.

Bitcoin: Been Better, Been Worse

Though these are trying times for cryptocurrencies in general, some optimists on the Bitcoin subreddits believe this to be a perfect time to buy. Some have even jokingly thanked Dimon for providing them with a discounted rate. The asset has definitely seen better days, but we also have to remember how far the price has come since the start of this year. Panic selling and remorse over lost funds is normal, but Bitcoin has definitely been worse off before.

A new version of Geth, a command-line interface for running ethereum nodes, includes changes that could see the software running at far higher speeds.

Electronic devices transmitting data do not always require expensive hardware. In fact, there are some very cheap solutions available today which are worth exploring. A new chip developed at the University of Washington is certainly worth keeping an eye on. This creation can transmit data across hundreds of meters for a very low price. All of this was made possible thanks to LoRa technology.

LoRa-based Chip for Cheap Wireless Data

Considering the sheer number of locations that are currently focusing on “smart“ efforts, solutions need to be found to accommodate these changes. Equipping cars, streets, and other facilities with hundreds of sensors is one possible course of action, although it can become rather expensive at the end. Technology will allow us to become a smarter and more aware society, but only if we find a way to keep costs low and the quality of data high. There is no reason not to filter out unnecessary “noise.”

Doing so will not be all that easy. The current framework will require thousands of transmitters and sensors to provide us with the data we need. Passing along information across hundreds of meters with existing technology is not all that easy when using tiny devices. However, researchers at the University of Washington have come up with a solution that can alleviate most of these issues. Not only is the gadget small, but it’s also cheap and incredibly energy-efficient.

This gadget, which will be unveiled at a computing conference in Miami today, uses LoRa technology. Some technology enthusiasts may have heard about this communication standard already. LoRa allows devices to communicate with one another using radio waves. However, it does not suffer from the drawbacks we experience when using WiFi. There is nothing to interrupt the data stream, as signals pass through walls and furniture without any problem.

By using a different frequency radio wave compared to WiFi, LoRa is an excellent solution for transmitting data across large distances. Even very distinct signals can be distinguished from background noise with relative ease. While the generation of such carrier waves requires a lot of power, the impression of data upon an existing signal requires virtually no power. Apparently, this is exactly what the University of Washington researchers experienced.

According to researcher Shyam Gollakota, LoRa-based chips can be made for less than US$0.20 a piece, and are capable of detecting signals several hundreds of meters away. They can also imprint data on an existing signal and send the information back to central transmitters. All of this is done with just 20 millionths of a watt. This means such devices can effectively be powered by watch batteries, for example. It is also possible they could operate using ambient energy, although that will not be the case for this product’s first generation.

This kind of chip can serve many different use cases in the future. The range of potential applications is virtually limitless at this stage. Hospitals, for example, would benefit greatly from such chips embedded within patient bracelets. It is an interesting concept to keep an eye on, and we will find out more when the technology is officially unveiled by the team.