Day: September 29, 2017

Debates surrounding SegWit2x are heating up as the proposed activation deadline draws closer. Although a lot of people have no love lost for this scaling solution, a large part of the mining community still intends to support it. Charlie Lee, the creator of Litecoin, is making it clear that he has no intention to support SegWit2x now or in the future. It will be interesting to see how things play out in this regard.

Charlie Lee Doesn’t Approve of SegWit2x

It is evident we will see more discussion of SegWit2x in the coming weeks. This scaling proposal has been considered highly controversial from day one. While the activation of Segregated Witness was one thing that everyone could agree on, increasing the block size to 2MB come November is something not everyone likes. That is only to be expected, as SegWit represents a transaction throughput capacity increase already.

Moreover, several parties to the New York Agreement (NYA) have removed their support for SegWit2x over the past few weeks. F2Pool stopped mining NYA blocks a while ago, yet it is seemingly back on board as we speak. Slush Pool clearly opposes SegWit2x right now, although it appears to be in the minority. In fact, it is the only top mining pool to be ignoring this scaling solution, as all other large pools are seemingly signaling support for the New York Agreement right now.

Do keep in mind these pools only signal the intent to support this scaling solution. Whether or not this means over 93% of all Bitcoin mining hashpower would switch over to SegWit2x if it were to become a separate currency and blockchain remains highly unlikely. Then again, stranger things have happened in the world of cryptocurrency. The coming weeks will prove pretty interesting in this regard.

One person openly rejecting SegWit2x right now is none other than Charlie Lee. To many people, that comes as a big surprise, considering how Lee has no real “beef’ in this game whatsoever. Litecoin successfully activated Segregated Witness on its network as well, and has seen a proper value appreciation because of it. A split in the Bitcoin world between the main chain and SegWit2x supporters may very well be catastrophic. It is doubtful that Lee’s words will carry much weight in this regard.

Miners and business cannot change Bitcoin without user consensus. So today, to show my disapproval, I'm adding [NO2X] to my name. Join me!

— Charlie Lee [NO2X] (@SatoshiLite) September 27, 2017

However, Lee does raise a valid point in that “miners and businesses cannot change Bitcoin without user consensus.” It is certainly true that most users do not like SegWit2x or what it stands for. Most exchanges and service providers also have little to no intention of supporting this implementation in the future. LocalBitcoins, for one, has made its stance perfectly clear, as it will not support future “Bitcoin airdrops” whatsoever. 

Without consent from the overall community, SegWit2x shouldn’t even be discussed in the first place. Right now, it appears to be yet another power grab by a mining community trying to impose its vision upon the rest of us. Rest assured a lot more will be said about this scaling solution before November comes around. Many people doubt the viability of SegWit2x as a whole, but that doesn’t mean it will go away quietly either.

Switzerland’s financial regulatory agency is investigating initial coin offerings to determine whether they follow banking and securities laws.

What is so special about the Swiss? ICOs have never been the Wild West there.

Most cryptocurrency enthusiasts will agree that South Korea has become a critical area for this industry. With local exchanges generating high amounts of trading volume every day, South Korea has already overtaken China and Japan in this regard. Bringing more competition to the exchange market is never a bad idea, though. Kakao and Bittrex have announced a joint exchange venture going by the name of Upbit. It’s an interesting concept that should shake things up quite a bit.

Upbit Brings Stiff Competition to Korean Exchanges

Most people already are familiar with one or two South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges these days. Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit are the ones people talk about most often. However, there are a lot more exchanges in the country than some people would assume. This list only grows longer with the new joint venture between Bittrex and Kakao. Their new Upbit exchange will be a game-changer for the Korean market as a whole, by the looks of things.

The fact that this cryptocurrency exchange venture has a Korean internet giant on board is pretty significant in its own right. Although very few people expected it at first, Kakao has been making inroads into the world of cryptocurrency of late. The Upbit exchange platform is the latest development in a much larger plan of action. The goal is to allow Upbit users to trade over 100 digital currencies using the Kakao Stock mobile application. Said application recently received an update to include Bitcoin price information as well.

Opting to partner with Bittrex for this particular venture is a rather surprising decision. That’s not because Bittrex is a bad exchange, as it has become the largest altcoin exchange in the world over the past few months. However, there is no reason to think Kakao wouldn’t have been able to pull off such a venture on its own. Then again, having a reliable and experienced partner on board will only accelerate the development of Upbit and increase its overall potential.

It has to be said that the year 2017 has already been pretty spectacular for Kakao. The company launched an internet-only bank not too long ago, which has been well received. There’s also Kakao Pay, the second most popular mobile payment solution in all of South Korea right now. Adding a cryptocurrency exchange venture to this list makes a lot of sense, in an odd way. Looking at the bigger picture, it was only a matter of time before such a venture materialized.

The bigger question is whether Upbit and other Korean exchanges will receive opposition from the Korean government. Although Bitcoin is not scrutinized in the country right now, it remains to be seen if that will change. The Korea Fair Trade Commission is particularly concerned about the cryptocurrency industry in its current form. Most of these concerns relate to ICOs and not actual cryptocurrencies themselves, though. For now, there is nothing to worry about just yet, although exchanges may receive a visit from regulators in the not-so-distant future.

For all intents and purposes, Upbit is exactly what the South Korean cryptocurrency industry needs right now. More competition is never a bad thing by any means. Having an internet giant getting involved in this nascent business brings more legitimacy to all currencies traded on the platform moving forward. Support for around 100 digital currencies is an ambitious goal, but it is certainly possible to attain that number. Exciting times lie ahead in South Korea; that much is certain.

VanEck’s proposed bitcoin futures ETF is in doubt following a call with SEC officials earlier this month, according to a new letter.

Dentacoin, the Ethereum-based smart contracts platform developed to maintain a tokenized community of dentists, clients, and dental care organizations, is exceeding its investors’ expectations already.

The Dentacoin Foundation and its blockchain network strive to create a fair, transparent, and efficient ecosystem wherein individuals are rewarded for their contributions to the global dental community. One of the most anticipated aspects of the Dentacoin blockchain platform is its unalterable smart contracts-based reputation system. On the Dentacoin platform, customers and clients can rate dentists with detailed reviews. Since the reviews are embedded into smart contracts that will eventually be deployed to the Ethereum blockchain network, the reputation system of dentists cannot be manipulated and is immutable.

Through the creation of a tokenized economy using its ERC20 token called DCN that is compatible with the Ethereum network’s Ether, the Dentacoin platform and foundation aim to incentivize customers and clients that directly contribute to the Dentacoin community. Such contributions take the form of honest reviews, market research, and detailed information on particular dentists and dental clinics.

Dentacoin’s whitepaper notes:

“The basic idea is to provide and maintain a decentralized review platform based on Ethereum smart contracts. This website rewards high quality “patient reviews” and “market research surveys” with Dentacoin. The incentive structure has a strong influence on the quality of dental treatments and increases the mutual responsibility between dentists and patients. The review project will be the first major milestone on Dentacoins’ roadmap to the future of dentistry.” 

While Dentacoin’s initial coin offering (ICO) is set to begin in 3 days, on October 1 at 14:00 UTC, Dentacoin has already been ranked on CoinMarketCap as the 83rd largest cryptocurrency in the world. Already, DCN has surpassed blockchain networks such as TokenCard and Tierion that have raised tens of millions dollars in their ICOs. At the time of reporting, Dentacoin’s market capitalization remains above US$51 million, and upon the completion of its ICO the value of DCN will likely rise even further.

According to the Dentacoin team, over 30,000 potential investors have already registered to participate in the ICO on October 1. More importantly, as the Dentacoin team conducts its ICO campaign, it will employ more aggressive strategies and advertising campaigns for global expansion, which will inevitably lead to an increase in the number of patients and dentists within the Dentacoin community. 

Explained the Dentacoin team:

“Dentacoin is the first cryptocurrency that uses a decentralized review platform and transparently rewards patients and dentists who make contributions that benefit the community. The Dentacoin Foundation team strongly believes in building a future healthcare industry that will fall into the hands of the people, resulting in the disruption of the existing industries and the creation of new industries in the short and long term.”

The demand for DCN and the Dentacoin blockchain network is already increasing at a rapid rate because the cryptocurrency community has been waiting for crypto-tokens and currencies that can be utilized in real-world use cases.

In the upcoming months, as the Dentacoin community becomes more established, patients within the Dentacoin community will be able to use the token to pay for dental treatment and purchase dental products.

Even before its ICO, DCN is being traded on many international trading platforms and cryptocurrency exchanges such as Cryptopia, Coin Exchange, Mercatox, and Novaexchange.

US on the way to the Blockchain technology adoption? Confirmed by the Trump administration

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Why enter into Asian Blockchain business now?

Noted whistleblower Edward Snowden has said that the privacy oriented cryptocurrency zcash is the “most interesting alternative” to bitcoin.

The price of ether stayed mostly in range on Friday despite news one of the industry’s most active markets would outlaw one of its major use cases.