Day: September 22, 2017

ICOs have rapidly become the new standard method of raising funds for cryptocurrency startups and enthusiasts. Although not every ICO raises its minimum goal, most projects have had no problem selling all the available tokens quickly. Throughout 2017, we have seen some major cryptocurrency ICO projects raise a lot of money. Below is a brief overview of the most successful ICO projects in terms of funding throughout 2017 so far.

10. Monetha

Although this project was only launched a short while ago, the amount of money raised surprised a lot of people. Monetha aims to provide a globally trusted commerce solution powered by the Ethereum blockchain to merchants in all industries. By raising US$36.6 million during the crowdsale, the ICO showed that people have high expectations for this project moving forward.

9. Aeternity

Bringing smart contract technology to the masses will not be easy by any stretch of the imagination. Aeternity aims to do exactly that by making smart contracts interface with real-world data.  Whether or not the company will be successful in doing so remains to be seen. However, with US$36.96 million raised during the ICO, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about this concept.

8. SONM

The world of supercomputing can benefit from more decentralization. Although SONM is competing against other projects in this industry, it also has a tremendous amount of potential. Its ICO raised US$42 million, which is a modest amount compared to how highly-valued this project can become, given enough time. There is not much hype surrounding SONM, as the team mainly focuses on developing a working ecosystem rather than making empty promises.

7. MobileGO

One of the more fascinating projects to date goes by the name of MobileGO. Bringing the world of cryptocurrency and mobile gaming together is quite a major undertaking. However, the project has seen its fair share of successes so far. This also explains how it raised US$53.069 million during its initial crowdsale. It’s definitely a project worth keeping an eye on moving forward.

6. TenX

In the world of cryptocurrency-related debit cards, one can never have enough competition. TenX is one of the ICO projects launching in 2017 which aims to make a big impact in this regard. By raising US$64 million during the ICO, there has been a lot of initial interest in this project. However, that amount of money is no guarantee for success whatsoever.

5. Status

Many people will recall the Status ICO for the wrong reasons. It’s not because the project is bad, as some real progress has been made. Unfortunately, the Status ICO highlighted major scalability issues for the Ethereum network, which got stuck due to the number of people trying to invest. When everything was said and done, Status raised US$90 million rather quickly.

4. Bancor

The Bancor ICO has received a lot of initial interest due to the involvement of Tim Draper. This project is also one of those ICOs which sold out very quickly, for obvious reasons. Raising US$153 million is not shabby. It will be interesting to see what the team will do with this money, as the expectations of them are incredibly high.

3. EOS (stage 1)

The EOS project has turned a lot of heads even though no one knows for sure if the team can deliver on its promises. There is a lot of interest in the concept, though, which has already translated into successfully raising US$185 million during its ICO. Putting that money to good use will be the number one priority right now.

2. Tezos

Creating a decentralized blockchain capable of governing itself through a digital commonwealth sounds pretty interesting on paper. Bringing this technology to the masses will be something else entirely, though. Tezos successfully raised US$232.319 million to bring this blockchain to fruition. Whether or not the product will succeed in the end still remains to be determined.

1. Filecoin

A lot of people were legitimately surprised by the Filecoin ICO, for obvious reasons. This project raised US$257 million out of the blue, even though the concept appears to be solid. A decentralized file storage network will certainly have major implications. Users will also earn Filecoin for hosting files, which is something a lot of enthusiasts will look forward to.

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LTCUSD TECHNICAL ANALYSIS LTCUSD topped on 02.09.2017 with very strong price rejection at 93.00. This was consequently confirmed by stochastics when a sell signal was printed. Further weakness was expected after the formation of that double bar reversal candlestick and bear engulfing pattern. With this breakdown, the first major support was broken on 14.09.2017 at … Continue reading Altcoin Analysis for 22-09-2017: LTC, DASH, XEM, IOTA and XMR

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In response to Jamie Dimon’s misguided comments about Bitcoin last week, one firm has filed a market abuse report against him. Blockswater, an algorithmic liquidity provider, raised issues of market manipulation, as well as accusing Dimon of deliberately distorting the public perception of cryptocurrency. According to London-based Blockswater, the JP Morgan CEO violated Article 12 … Continue reading Jamie Dimon Accused of Market Abuse regarding Comments on Bitcoin

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The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has filed a lawsuit against a New York-based man and his company for allegedly running a bitcoin scam.

Although the concept of central bank digital currency remains severely contested, efforts are being made to turn this into a very real thing. Sweden could be one of the first countries to go ahead with such an initiative. Some more information has been leaked regarding the creation of an E-Krona, which is scheduled to be brought into circulation as early as next year. The Swedish central bank has big plans for this currency, by the looks of things.

E-Krona can Become a Very Real Thing Soon

The concept of a central bank digital currency is of great interest to the Swedish government. The nation is currently seeing far less cash use than before. This seems to indicate both retailers and consumers are looking for new payment opportunities in general. This creates new opportunities for the country’s central bank as well, which will gladly explore the option of the E-Krona.

The bank is currently looking at whether or not it is feasible to create a digital currency in the first place. It would not replace the regular currency by any means but merely complement it. After all, there is no reason to abolish cash in Sweden just yet, even though fewer people are interested in using it. However, it has to make sense to the bank and the government to even create an E-Krona in the first place, as there are always risks to take into account.

With the use of cash in Sweden decreasing rapidly, coming up with digital solutions is more important now than ever before. The E-Krona would provide the public with state-guaranteed digital cash. Payment service providers could also make use of the new currency without any major repercussions. For the time being, the concept is merely being explored, which does not necessarily mean it will become a real entity in the future.

The E-Krona will be issued on some sort of centralized ledger controlled by the Swedish central bank. It is unclear if this will be a blockchain, distributed ledger, or just a regular old database. There is also no indication as to how many of these digital kronor will be brought into circulation. After all, inflating the available amount of currency in any form will have some big consequences. It does appear there will be a dedicated app for this currency as well, although no specifics have been revealed at this time.

For the time being, the bank’s primary objective is to investigate the feasibility of such an E-Krona. Even though it makes a lot of sense on paper, thorough research is needed to ensure all bases are covered. There has been a strong focus on investigating which technologies will be best suited for this digital venture. To that end, the group will have an open dialogue with the authorities and private service providers alike.

Sweden’s central bank is not the only institution showing an interest in digital currency, though. Over the past few months, we have seen other financial entities launch similar research efforts. For the time being, none of those efforts have made any significant impacts whatsoever, which should not come as a big surprise to anyone. Central bank digital currencies will always remain an interesting train of thought.

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Secured loans have been a business practice for quite some time now. Many of these loans are issued by pawn shops and have their fair share of pros and cons. GoldMint wants to take the good aspects of these loans and improve upon them with the help of the blockchain and IT.

What are Secured Loans?

A secured loan is essentially any loan where the borrower must put up some collateral as a way to secure the loan for the lender. If the borrower is unable or unwilling to repay the remainder of the loan, the lender can take an asset as collateral to offset their loss. It is a good way to keep the borrower honest and the lender covered.

Pawn shops often issue these types of loans because they can be profitable and generally beneficial for both parties. The borrower gets their much-needed cash when they need it, and the pawn shop knows that it is protected from financial loss if the borrower is unable to pay back the original loan.

GoldMint has spotted four glaring issues with pawn shop secured loans as they stand today, however. They are unclaimed pledges, weird payment amounts and schedules, funding pawn shop lending, and consolidation of a unified standard of practice.

GoldMint Revolutionizes Secured Lending

The GoldMint team has years of experience in finance and lending, but for the past few years they have been particularly interested in the pawn shop model of secured lending. Ideally, they want to amplify the good aspects of it while addressing the four issues with the current model identified above. By using IT and the blockchain, they are confident that they can accomplish this. By collaborating with pawn shops, they have already helped address the unclaimed pledges problem. They issued their “Bogatstvo” card as another way for pawn shops to distribute loans besides cash. The previous cash model made it hard for pawn shops to issue credit because of the massive lack of transparency. GoldMint provides credit for pawn shops and connects pawn shops with those who are ready to lend to them.

GoldMint’s secured loans and lending will use gold as collateral. As mentioned, transparency in loan disbursements is one of the largest limiting factors to secured loans from pawn shops. By integrating disbursements with the blockchain, this becomes a problem of the past. While the U.S. dollar left something to be desired for the team, gold seemed like an excellent medium of value. However, the team also realized the challenges of issuing loans in and against physical gold. Consequently, they chose to have gold assets live on and transferred among individuals on the blockchain by tethering one ounce of gold to one GOLD token. In the future, users will be able to add gold onto the blockchain via the Custody Bot, which will verify the purity of gold entering the blockchain with its built-in spectrometer.

GoldMint’s Future and the Custody Bot

The peer-to-peer lending network that GoldMint is developing will connect lenders and borrowers via its hypermedia protocol. This in and of itself is revolutionary and exciting, but the team has even greater plans for the future. Custody Bot will act as pawn shops on the street or at the gas station. They even want to have a home Custody Bot one day. With that, users would be able to evaluate the purity and value of jewelry from the convenience of home.

Check out their project here: https://www.goldmint.io/

Check out their ICO page: https://www.goldmint.io/ico

This is a sponsored post and does not necessarily reflect the opinions held by any of The Merkle employees. This is not investment or trading advice; always do your own independent research.

Litecoin is again trading below $50, just three weeks after setting a new all-time high above $100.

Wireless charging has quickly become very popular among technology enthusiasts. Unfortunately, there are a few drawbacks to this charging method. To start with, not every current device even supports it. It has always been difficult to wirelessly charge more than one device at a time. Thanks to a new project by Pi, the latter aspect is becoming less of an issue. Its new charging solution can juice up five devices at the same time without the need for cables.

A Major Breakthrough for Wireless Charging

The needs and demands of consumers all over the world are quickly changing these days. While most electronic gadgets still require a cable to be charged, that situation is slowly changing thanks to the emergence of wireless charging solutions. Most common smartphones and even a select few tablets effectively allow users to wirelessly charge their devices without any friction. However, it still requires a major amount of precision to successfully charge one’s device wirelessly.

Most wireless charging pads require users to properly position their device first. This would explain why a lot of consumers have not much liked wireless charging. If the entire concept of wireless charging requires such a degree of precision, there is no reason to get involved with it in the first place.

It is still up to individual hardware manufacturers to implement wireless charging capabilities in their products. Most Apple devices, for example, have no wireless charging capabilities in 2017, which makes one wonder if the company will ever change this in the future. Given the recent iPhone X announcement, this will not be the case anytime soon. That is a major missed opportunity, according to some experts, although the decision was anything but surprising.

Pi is a more than viable solution to wirelessly charge more devices at the same time, although it remains to be seen if there will ever be a major demand for such a product. This new device can charge up to 5 devices at the same time using wireless technology. You will not even have to be near the charging device, as it works up to a foot away, which is pretty interesting. It is not entirely surprising to learn that this project was developed at MIT, as the institute has generated some great initiatives over the past few years.

Perhaps most shockingly, the Pi will cost under US$200. That is a pretty sweet price considering most decent wireless chargers aren’t cheap, and those only work with one device at a time. Users will also need to obtain a resonant receiver case to ensure their device can effectively receive a charge. However, being able to wirelessly charge while using one’s device is a major breakthrough for people owning a device supporting this form of charging in the first place.

Projects like these create some interesting opportunities for hardware manufacturers. Either these companies will equip future devices with the resonant receiver technology, or we’ll simply see more traditional devices with wireless charging capabilities. A third option is that we would see more custom cases to support different types of devices which could all benefit from wireless charging with Pi. It will be interesting to see how things play out.

Ever wish you could live in a Libertarian utopia? Roger Ver and his team may have the answer for you.

The recent hit to the Bitcoin and Ethereum markets have left many investors feeling burned by the cryptocurrency industry. It was the first time this year that investors and traders were so massively vulnerable, and many people lost a lot of money. A project called Rhea Token is hoping to help investors avoid these kinds of vulnerabilities in the future. Let’s take a look at what this project has to offer.

Problems for Investors in the Cryptocurrency Markets Today

One of the most frustrating aspects of the cryptocurrency market is holding onto a coin, then seeing another asset perform better or seeing current holdings decrease massively in value. Because of this, Rhea token decided to build a platform that allowed investors and traders to treat cryptocurrencies more like traditional investments, assets, and positions. Through this platform, Rhea users can speculate, trade options, and hedge the cryptocurrency market without having to expose themselves to the risks associated with holding individual cryptocurrencies. All of this sounds like it could be a nice opportunity for investors, but how does it work exactly?

Hedging Bets and Insuring Positions With the Crypto20 Index

Most investors know that trading index funds is often more secure than buying, holding, and selling individual stocks. Rhea token’s mission is to provide cryptocurrency investors with opportunities similar to those that traditional investors have at their disposal while trading. They plan on doing this with their Crypto20 Index. Investors can buy and trade this entity similarly to index funds. It is called “Crypto20” because the index will be comprised of the top 20 best-performing cryptocurrencies at any given time.

Platform users can buy, sell, and trade these options and indices with the Rhea token. They are also able to act as market liquidity on the platform in exchange for an extra return. Token holders and market participants can expect to be given a quarterly dividend. By allowing traders to work with the top 20 cryptocurrencies in one neat package, Rhea Token lets investors hedge against markets and protect themselves from the incredible volatility associated with the cryptocurrency markets.

Rhea Token’s Upcoming ICO

Since access to their options trading platform and their Crypto20 Index requires having the Rhea token, the team will be hosting an ICO in the coming weeks. It will start on October 2nd and run until the 30th of October. The minimum contribution will be 0.1 ETH. Its supply cap is a hard 50,000,000 tokens. Interested individuals are encouraged to read their whitepaper thoroughly and to follow the news via their social media outlets.

Here is their website: http://rheatoken.io

Check out their whitepaper here: http://rheatoken.io/documentation/WhitePaper.pdf

This is a sponsored article and does not necessarily reflect the views of any The Merkle employees. This is not investment or trading advice. Always conduct your own independent research.