Day: October 10, 2017

Another day is about to draw to completion out of Europe in our bitcoin trading efforts and things are really starting to move now. When we covered the bitcoin price this morning, we noted that there was real potential for a break of the $5,000 level and that, if we do see this break, we … Continue reading Bitcoin Price Watch; $5,000 In Sight

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The number of Bitcoin hard forks is quite astonishing, assuming one takes all the lesser-known coins into consideration. Bitcoin Cash is the only hard fork to stand on its own right now, though it remains to be seen if the same will apply to SegWit2x moving forward. Things are a lot less clear when it comes to Bitcoin Gold, as there is a lot of uncertainty as to when this fork takes place, to begin with.

Bitcoin Gold Raises More Questions Than Answers

A lot of people aren’t taking Bitcoin Gold seriously right now, which is not entirely surprising. This hard fork aims to provide another free coin to Bitcoin holders, even though the way it is going about things may leave a lot to be desired in the end. For one thing, we know that a lot of these coins are premined; otherwise, they couldn’t be distributed to Bitcoin holders accordingly.

However, the bigger question is when these coins are to be premined in the first place. Originally, the Bitcoin Gold site mentioned the date of October 25th, which would mean the fork would occur about two weeks from now. Other accounts operated by the same team, however, indicate that the fork takes place on block 478,558. If that were the official issuance date, the coins were premined about 10,000 blocks ago.

It is evident this discrepancy is causing a lot of confusion, to say the least. Bitcoin Gold is a currency which seemingly offers nothing spectacular or innovative right now, even though there will be initial interest in this concept simply because people will make some free money from it. It remains to be seen if and when users will actually get their BTG tokens, though, and if so, how much of the premine will be issued to users in the process.

One month until #bgold exodus fork.

Hodl BTC on 10.25 get free BTG on 11.1#bgold1025 #blockchainQE #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/ORgjvTZK8m

— Bitcoin Gold (@btcgpu) September 25, 2017

On Reddit, there are a lot of conflicting reports on Bitcoin Gold as well. Bitcoin Gold takes the concept of forking Bitcoin for political reasons to a whole new level, albeit not in a positive manner whatsoever. With so many coins being premined by the developer, there is a legitimate chance the BTG supply will be dumped onto exchanges, assuming this token ever gets on an exchange to begin with.

The lack of verifiable information surrounding Bitcoin Gold – or Bitcoin GPU, depending on what people want to call it – makes this project look amateurish at best. A lot of information has been removed from the website, which only adds more confusion to the mix. Although Bitcoin users gladly welcome airdrops as a way to get some additional money, Bitcoin Gold is not necessarily on a lot of people’s lists right now.

For the time being, it remains to be seen what will happen with Bitcoin Gold moving forward. October 25th – assuming that is the correct date – will be an important date to keep an eye on, as we will either see BTG succeed or get dumped to the ground in a matter of hours. It is unclear if any exchange will support this useless hard fork, though, as that does not appear to be the case right now. It’s an interesting situation to keep an eye on, though; that much is certain.

The UAE’s Abu Dhabi has released new guidelines for those looking to organize or participate in an initial coin offering (ICO).

October, 2017, Moscow: New global food-tech project INS from the founders of Instamart product delivery service announces new members to join the advisory board: Keynote CEO and the Executive Member of Global Blockchain Council Mo Levin, ICORating Founder and General Partner of ICOShark Investment Crypto Fund Dmitry Filatov and BlackMoon Co-Founder and ex-VP of VK social network Ilya Perekopsky whose project collected a $30 m record funding during September-2017 token-sale.

INS also announces the letters of intent signed with the largest FMCG producers including Unilever, MARS, Valio, Reckitt Benckiser and Campina. These companies are ready to place its products at INS platform right after its launch.

“The leading consumer goods’ manufacturers enthusiastically embraced the idea of direct sales and marketing via INS ecosystem, both in Russia and globally. Recognition of FMCG giants such as Unilever and MARS is an important milestone on the way to absolutely transparent and 100% effective decentralized model of the largest global retail market”, comments Peter Fedchenkov, INS Co-Founder and CEO.

The project team believes that global cross-discipline expertise of Advisory Board – Mo Levin, Dmitry Filatov, Ilya Perekopsky as well as Dixy CEO Ilya Yakubson and Qiwi founder Sergey Solonin – will help INS to revolutionize the huge $6 tln market.

“Blockchain has an enormous potential in food-tech. INS ecosystem will allow the consumers to save decent money thanks to direct connection with producers – no doubt this is a new era for retail market where the consumers will have their right to decide for brand or goods they prefer. I believe in global the value of INS project and do hope that experience and expertise gained during BlackMoon project ICO will help INS team to reach the ambitious targets as well as avoid multiple pitfalls of the global emerging ICO market”, – comments ICO advisor Ilya Perekopsky.

INS plans to raise 200K ETH during an ICO (equivalent of $55-60 mln depending on the exchange rate) kicking off November 27, 2017. ICO will last for 4 weeks.

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of The Merkle. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

We have seen physical Bitcoin exchanges pop up in a few countries already. Although some companies mainly use physical locations for consultation services, things are a bit different with Mexico’s Bitlem exchange. The company actually allows customers to buy and sell Bitcoin and Ethereum at a physical location in the heart of Mexico City. It’s an interesting concept, especially in a country where financial hardship has become the new normal.

Bitlem Embarks on a new Venture

Most people think of cryptocurrency exchanges as online platforms only. In most cases, consumers have to sign up with a website, send in documents to verify their identity, and wire money to said company in exchange for cryptocurrency. It is an incredibly cumbersome process which most people don’t like one bit. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many alternatives in most countries.

Having said that, there are consumers who would like to enter a building and buy Bitcoin or Ethereum over the counter. Such locations do exist in certain parts of the world, but Mexico didn’t have such a venture until last week.  Local exchange Bitlem has changed the game in this regard, even though it remains to be seen whether its physical exchange will help more people warm up to cryptocurrency moving forward.

The new office is located in the center of Mexico City. Bitlemoon SA, or Bitlem, is the first local exchange to provide physical purchase opportunities for cryptocurrencies. A total of ten different currencies are supported at the location, which can be bought and sold in exchange for Mexican pesos. What is rather remarkable is how this location is in close proximity to the Mexico Stock Exchange. Intertwining traditional finance with cryptocurrency in such a way will have some interesting consequences.

Miren lo que me encontré, un exchange de criptodivisas en efectivo en el D.F. (cobran el 5% de fee) #bitcoin #eth #Mexico @bitlemoficial pic.twitter.com/nYPfUUo783

— Mr. Wolf (@pendragonn) September 11, 2017

This intriguing precedent will surely send shockwaves throughout Mexico. The country has been dealing with financial hardship for quite some time now, but things may finally start turning around when cryptocurrencies become more common. It is a major challenge to open a physical Bitcoin exchange; that much is evident. The company aims to ensure Bitcoin will attain a level of trust and usability by the general population. Doing business in a face-to-face manner will certainly instill a lot more trust, to say the least.

Moreover, this office can also serve as a way to provide personal customer support to Bitlem’s users. Bithumb in South Korea has taken similar steps in this regard, as the company acknowledges there is a demand for personalized services taking place in a brick-and-mortar location. One downside to Bitlem’s physical location is that customers will pay a 5% fee on every purchase, which is on par with most cryptocurrency ATMs these days.

It is important to keep in mind Mexico has no active cryptocurrency guidelines as of right now. Dealing with this “virtual money” is still something consumers need to be wary of, as they are not protected whatsoever by the government. With the opening of this new physical location, it is expected the country’s central bank will pay closer attention to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Whether or not that is a good thing remains to be determined. If other countries are an example, Bitcoin will be scrutinized in Mexico very soon.

Trying to give a straight answer about what Blockchain is appears to be a challenge for non-Blockchain CEOs.

The ether-US dollar exchange may be primed for a move a week before ethereum’s upcoming Byzantium hard fork.

Through the utilization of the Ethereum network’s immutable blockchain and transparent smart contracts-based ecosystem for decentralized applications, developers of PayperEx have built an alternative stock market for private companies within the cryptocurrency sector.

Special offer for The Merkle members: Just before the token sale starts, get up to 25% extra PAX, signup and send this promo code – themerkleP4565 to [email protected]

Over the past two years, the initial coin offering (ICO) market has demonstrated an exponential growth rate, allowing individual investors and non-accredited traders to fund startups and blockchain projects within the cryptocurrency sector. The ICO market has outgrown venture capital (VC) funding in the cryptocurrency industry, as startups secured more than $1.3 billion from individuals in 2017 alone.

The ICO market was able to gain such massive popularity and demand from general consumers because it eliminated the necessity of VC firms and accredited investors; it enabled anyone within the ecosystem and community to fund startups and hold equity in the projects.

Essentially, the development team behind PayperEx are attempting to achieve a similar goal to the ICO market by providing an efficient and robust platform in which non-accredited individual investors can fund private companies, like angel investors or VC firms. More importantly, through a tokenized economy based on its native token Payper, both investors and private companies can raise capital transparently, without complications, contract failures, or legal conflicts.

“Paypers are shares based units, same as in stock exchange you buy Paypers that based on financial assets e.g. Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc. There are two types of Paypers issued:”BULL” and “BEAR”. A BULL Payper is predicting that the price of the underlying asset will rise, whereas a BEAR Payper is predicting that the price of the underlying asset will fall,” explained the PayperEx team.

Specifically, the PayperEx team emphasized that it intends to target regular individual investors rather than providing sufficient liquidity for large-scale institutional investors and traders, creating a simpler market and infrastructure for general consumers.

“While more and more people wants to take a part of the Crypto and share market, only few will get to benefit and make good profit out of it. It’s a much easier for institutions and brokers than for everyday people. Even big investment firms and brokers with the scale and financial ability, can’t always do it currently,” added the PayperEx team.

If startups like BnkToTheFuture have provided efficient infrastructures for accredited and large-scale investors to fund private companies in the cryptocurrency sector, PayperEx is targeting the opposite market in general consumers and everyday users. Through the PayperEx blockchain network and transparent fundraising platform, investors can easily fund highly potent private startups, and entrepreneurs can also secure funding from a distributed network of individual investors.

A key part of the PayperEx platform is expected to be its PAX token, which will serve as the network’s native token and the currency for funding startups.

“The PAX is Token (Coin) issued in order to let the crowd participate in the project and to become members at the networkֲ . Each activity in the PayperEx network is performed using PAX, making the token an integral part of the network and the driver of its economy,” explained the PayperEx team.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

There are a lot of reasons why Africa should be adopting Bitcoin, and a lot of ways it could help the continent, so why has it been so slow to grow?

Over the past few months, we have seen several peer-to-peer and decentralized exchange solutions announce their progress. It is good to see such creations, as most cryptocurrency trading still takes place on centralized platforms. QVolta is one of the latest P2P exchange platforms to come about, focusing on fiat and cryptocurrency. Another competitor for LocalBitcoins is emerging, which can only be considered to be a good thing.

QVolta Embraces P2P Trading

It is somewhat surprising to see so few decentralized or P2P exchange solutions in the year 2017. Considering we all deal with decentralized cryptocurrency, one would expect there to be a bigger focus on peer-to-peer trading in general. Instead, most users rely on centralized exchanges, which are subject to severe regulatory measures. It is evident something will need to change in this regard before cryptocurrency can be considered a mainstream trend.

QVolta is one of the few projects focusing on peer-to-peer trading as of right now. Although the platform itself still has yet to be finalized, there are some interesting aspects to look forward to. Most people will immediately notice that the platform aims to compete with LocalBitcoins, even though it is not solely focusing on Bitcoin right now. It appears users will also be able to trade Ethereum for fiat currencies on this platform. That is a good sign, mind you, as all cryptocurrencies must be tradable in a P2P or decentralized fashion.

Being able to buy and sell cryptocurrency in exchange for local payment options will bring Bitcoin and Ethereum to more people, which is a great thing. Although some solutions already exist in this regard, it will be interesting to see if Qvolta can one-up its competition. Converting cash to crypto and vice versa remains a big problem for a lot of people, even in 2017. The current process involving centralized exchanges is anything but convenient.

As one would expect these days, QVolta will host its own ICO in the very near future. While we are not big fans of every new exchange platform issuing its own ICO token these days, projects like these need adequate funding to be viable. It appears 18 million tokens will be created in the end, which means the team hopes to raise around 18,000 ETH during the crowdsale.  That’s a pretty ambitious goal, although it is not necessarily impossible to achieve by any means.

If all goes according to plan, a mobile application for this platform will be developed in a few months from now. A desktop client for the alpha version of this platform is already available, even though a lot of work still needs to be done to turn this into a proper exchange solution. It is good to see some work having been done well ahead of the ICO, as most other products expect people to throw money their way without even a minimally viable product.

For the time being, it remains to be seen how things will play out for QVolta. This new platform has a lot of promise moving forward, although it remains to be seen if it can compete with existing peer-to-peer solutions. More players entering this market can only be considered a good thing right now; that much is certain. All we need now is some more decentralized trading solutions, as that is what the cryptocurrency community really needs right now.

Dozens of startups are now working with blockchain in Singapore, according to an official for the city-state’s de facto central bank.

Russia has joined China in banning cryptocurrency exchange access, but the decision failed to hit markets.

UK-Based Blockchain gaming solutions start-up TriForce Tokens has announced it has partnered with Coventry University Enterprises Ltd for business cooperation, while initiating an IP audit with the UK government’s Innovate UK for its technology and brand. TriForce also has long-term membership with integral Industry leader TIGA, and the Crypto Valley Association in Switzerland.

The platform is currently in Early Alpha for both players and gamers, and is aiming to provide the online gaming community with decentralized P2P trading, anti-piracy protection, and the world’s first honorary rewards system.

TriForce Tokens Early Alpha Platform Screenshot:

This year the number of online gamers has exploded to in excess of 2.2 billion, with an estimated annual industry revenue of over $100 billion. Despite this exponential growth the market, there is an increasingly evident lack of support for the growth of Indie game development and piracy protection for all parties involved. Triforce Tokens development team and dedicated to providing the gaming community with a real, blockchain-based solution for the ongoing issues currently plaguing this multi-billion-dollar industry.

The online gaming market surpassed that of the film industry in terms of revenue some years ago, and continuing in this upward, in many ways it is struggling to keep up with that growth. At it’s current rate of 6% annual growth, modest projections put the online gaming market at at a value of an astounding $128.5 billion dollars by 2020.

The recent evolution of console, PC, and mobile gaming platforms has broken new ground, offering smaller, ‘Indie’ development companies and individuals the freedom to reach an audience of over 2 billion online gamers. With such a huge change in any industry there are always going to be some growing pains, and the aggressive expansion of the online gaming industry has resulted in an over-complication of the processes like game production, monetization, marketing, player reach, and retention; especially for Indie game developers.

TriForce Tokens decentralized gaming infrastructure aims disrupt the online gaming Industry, addressing the current barriers of market entry for thousands of Independent game developers who are struggling to produce high quality games, with stringent timeframes, limited resources, smaller budgets and massive marketing costs. This new platform will offer such developers a chance to swiftly and efficiently release typical features across any platform or game. This will extend to multiplayer titles, tournaments, p2p trading and peer ranking systems.

Rather than trying to replace the existing revenue stream, TriForce Tokens is aiming to expand on the so far unexplored revenue streams and connect an ecosystem that financially benefits users of all platform’s. Users will be able to use TriForce Tokens to trade with other gamers or earn them as rewards for competition, as a part of the platform’s honorary reward system. Developers will be able to compensate players with TFT, for completing tasks and charge their own fees for P2P transactions.

TriForce Tokens will create a level of transparency which will foster safe and ethical communities, in which its unique honour system can identify users for potential collaboration and assistance for other players. The systems honour profiles enable complete transparency to fight fraud and other negative aspects of the industry.

To tackle the issue of player retention, TriForce Tokens will help developers to provide a completely unique gaming experience, through the implementation of big data and behavioural analysis to offer deep player insights. The platform’s blockchain solution also guarantees an authentication network, which will assist developers in limiting piracy concerns, and allowing them to retrieve some revenue from pirated content.

Strategic industry organizations for long-term positioning

TriForce Tokens has forged several crucial Industry partnerships in the months leading up to it’ ICO Campaign.

TriForce Tokens will start an IP audit process with the UK government’s innovation agency, Innovate UK. The audit will assess TriForce Tokens’ technology and brand, helping to provide a stronger focus to ensure they deliver maximum value. Innovate UK will work with TriForce Tokens to connect them with relevant partners through its networks.

TriForce Tokens is also receiving support from Coventry University Enterprises Limited. Coventry University Enterprises Ltd’s award-winning Technology Park is a prestigious location that hosts some of the region’s most innovative businesses and is home to the Serious Games Institute.

The company is also a full member of games and network publisher, TIGA, who strengthen games development and digital publishing in the UK. TIGA is a leading gaming trade association which lobbies for the Industry to key government lawmakers within the UK and the EU, positioning the industry in the media and helping its members commercially.

TIGA has enjoyed numerous Industry accolades in the last 7 years, including 24 recognized business awards and it continues to influence government policies within the games industry. TIGA has been influential in several significant industry successes, including tax credit improvements in 2011, Video Games Tax Relief (2008-2014), the maintenance of a Skills Investment Fund in 2015 and the establishment of a £4 million Prototype Fund for start-ups.

TriForce Tokens other big recent partnership was formed with the Swiss-based Crypto Valley Association – a non-profit association aiming to build the world’s leading blockchain and cryptographic technologies ecosystem in Switzerland. The company is supported by the Swiss government, and is working to advance ICO compliance, including a current project to develop a token launch Code of Conduct. As four of the top six token launches have all taken place in Switzerland, Crypto Valley offers one of the most firmly established organizations in the global blockchain community.

TriForce Tokens and Crowd-sale

TriForce Tokens (TFT) will be the currency powering payments and rewards on the decentralized gaming ecosystem. They will also be available to trade on external platforms, driving significant appreciation of value as the project grows in strength. TriForce Tokens Steam‐like blockchain based gaming platform is in Early Alpha and can be accessed for both players and developers

As part of a fundraising exercise to support development of its platform, TriForce Tokens will conduct a public crowdsale of tokens via an Initial Coin Offering (ICO). A pre-ICO will open on October 14, 2017 (1.30pm GMT) for 48 hours only. Participants in the pre-ICO stand to gain a 60% limited bonus on top of the standard rate of 1 TFT at $0.20. In addition, 50 random pre-ICO participants will be chosen to receive a free Ledger Nano S hardware wallet.

Following this, TriForce Tokens will launch its main ICO event from November 12, 2017 to November 25 (1.30pm GMT), 2017. A 30% bonus will apply on Day 1 purchases and 15% on Days 2 to 7.

A maximum of 375 million TFT will be sold during the ICO from a limited supply of 500 million TFT, while a hard cap of $40 million in funding has been set. Unsold tokens will be burnt. TriForce Tokens also has ambitions to become the first fully-compliant UK ICO, and is working on ISO27001 certification and General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) compliance.

The Team

TriForce Tokens is backed by an ensemble of experts from a range of sectors, including corporate management, online gaming, computer security and blockchain development. Some of its key team members include:

Pete Mardell, CEO

Mardell established himself as a strong engineering professional with his work on a range of technical web applications when he was Head of Development for a recruitment agency in the UK. An avid gamer, Mardell is also a long-time cryptocurrency enthusiast. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/petemardell/

Raza Ahmed, CTO

Ahmed has vast experience as a Senior Full Stack Web Developer and qualified blockchain developer, with expertise in Solidity (Ethereum), Javascript, SQL, Node.js, and AngularJS, among others. An MSc holder in Software Development, Ahmed has developed web applications for almost eight years. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/razaahmed47/

Dr Nazaraf Shah, PhD Research Engineer

An associate professor at Coventry University’s Faculty Research Centre for Manufacturing and Materials Engineering, Dr Shah currently lectures in Ethical Hacking and Computer Security.

Jakub Kafarski, Front-end Engineer

Kafarski has worked on front-end engineering for the likes of Noveo, Madkom and Ericsson across Poland, UK and Sweden. He works as a front-end software engineer at CycloMedia Technology, a leader in its field. He is skilled at JavaScript, React, Redux and Node.js and is a member of Mensa. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jakub-kafarski/

Sorina Rusu, System Developer

Rusu is a passionate developer with extensive experience in PHP and Node.js. Her good organization skills and dedication has been key to her successes with consulting and tech firms in Romania as well in the UK. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sorina-rusu-1b73a668/

Haider Malik, Senior Full Stack Developer

A Javascript expert, Malik also doubles as an instructor at learning academies Udemy and Fullstackhour.

Simona Patrut, Marketing

Patrut has a strong marketing background, including a management role at Romania’s Hilmi Medical Center, where she has managed entire product marketing cycles. She is an expert at building new partnerships for strong brand awareness.

Mihai Bratoi, Brand Designer

Bratoi is a Platinum Designer at UK designing firm 99designs. His work focuses on creating unique, memorable designs that responds well to customer needs for corporate needs and social media.