Day: November 9, 2017

There is an increased focus on blockchain-based financial platforms. One of the companies worth keeping an eye on goes by the name of Zilliqa. The project recently appointed two Fintech veterans as advisors. Moreover, the company performed experiments to process 2,488 transactions per second on the testnet. This high-transaction rate blockchain platform is continuing to make waves in the blockchain and financial sectors.

Good things are happening for Zilliqa as we speak. Earlier this month, their testnet trial was successful beyond expectations. More specifically, the blockchain-based platform processed over 2,488 transactions per second. That is virtually unprecedented in the world of blockchain technology these days. The use of “sharding” allows for a much higher throughput compared to what we are used to in this industry. At its peak, it may even rival VISA and Mastercard. An ambitious goal, but it is not unlikely either.

A Bright Future Lies Ahead for Zilliqa

To support their core team and perhaps indicate that the company is making inroads into the banking technology, Zilliqa recently appointed two new advisors. Former Bank of America Managing Director Alexander Lipton is a major addition to the team. Additionally, Stuart Prior has decades of experience in Corporate and Investment banking. Both of these gentlemen will help elevate Zilliqa to a whole new level in the future. After all, the company is still in the early stages of development. With sufficient scaling, a throughput of 15,000 transactions per second isn’t out of the question by any means.

Zilliqa CEO Xinshu Dong comments as follows:

“We are truly honored that both Alexander and Stuart have agreed to come on board and help us build Zilliqa into world class blockchain platform. The fact these true visionaries in banking and fintech have seen the potential in our technology is a testament to Zilliqa. I’m sure Zilliqa will greatly benefit from their experience and expertise to build the blockchain platform for high-throughput dApps.”

What once started as a research paper in 2015, co-authored by Loi Luu of KyberNetwork, Prateek Saxena from National University of Singapore and others, has become a massive breakthrough in the world of blockchain. Scalability concerns have been present for quite some time now. These issues are still present in most blockchain-based cryptocurrencies and digital assets alike. Especially Bitcoin and Ethereum are limited in transaction throughput right now.

Solving these problems through sharding is one way to address the situation. Zilliqa is clearly ahead of any competitors in this regard right now. The source code of this project and a public testnet will be made public in December of 2017. An interesting future lies ahead for this project, especially when additional developers participate in testing and start building applications on their super-fast blockchain platform.

The post High-transaction Rate Blockchain Platform Zilliqa Welcomes New Senior Advisors appeared first on NEWSBTC.

SINGAPORE, NOVEMBER 09, 2017 – “Growth is never by mere chance: it is the result of forces working together” James Cash Penney.

Since the announcement on October 15, 2017 by fidentiaX on building the World’s 1^st Marketplace for Tradable Insurance Policies powered by Blockchain Technology, the community around the project has grown exponentially over the last few weeks. The project has received strong endorsement from various stakeholders and the community whom seek the disruption potential of the project.

A significant number of the 2000+ members of the community was unaware that their Insurance Policy was actually a tradable asset and they could extract higher value by trading it in the open market. The team at fidentiaX has been contacted by various companies exploring how they could work with fidentiaX’s Marketplace to expand their reach to potential customers globally and to get a better understanding of how blockchain technology is applied to solve the inefficiencies in the current market.

Over the past 2 weeks, fidentiaX has been working with various exchanges to list our tokens for trade after the end of our Crowd Contribution round, December 5, 2017. We are pleased to announced that we have managed to secure 2 exchanges that will list fdX tokens on the 6 December, 2017.

The team behind fidentiaX has been working hard to communicate our vision of the World’s 1^st Marketplace for Tradable Policies and came up with the following videos:

Introduction to fidentiaX: https://youtu.be/kUQ1VGwkR_Q
fidentiaX Marketplace, How does it work?: https://youtu.be/5658SIqCXd4
fidentiaX Team Introduction: https://youtu.be/gfIxycOR7qY
fidentiaX Q&A Part 1: https://youtu.be/eVpgdN1mpbQ

We are also very proud to share the article written by our Technology Partner, Roberto Capodieci (Founder of Blockchain Zoo) on why he choose to work with fidentiaX on this project. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/blockchain-project-ive-chosen-work-roberto-capodieci/

fidentiaX crowd sale will begin on 6 November 2017 with a bonus of 10%~15% for early contributors during the 1^st 5 days and thereafter at 1 ETH = 500 fdX tokens. To participate in this disruptive project, please sign up for the whitelist at https://token.fidentiaX.com and join us in creating the World’s 1^st Marketplace for Tradable Insurance Policies.

About fidentiaX Ltd.

fidentiaX is a Singapore-based fintech startup that was launched in 2017 to disrupt the insurance market by leveraging blockchain technology to create an active market for tradable life insurance policies. The fidentiaX founding team consists of industry veterans with more than 35 years of experience in the banking and insurance industry. To develop the platform, fidentiaX has partnered up with blockchain development company Blockchain Zoo.

Furthermore, fidentiaX is creating a non-profit foundation for proliferate the adapting of blockchain technology for the insurance industry. We will be developing open-source technology to help insurance companies issue insurance policies directly onto the blockchain and leverage on the benefits of the technology.

If you want to find out more about fidentiaX please visit www.fidentiaX.com or find the company at

Facebook: www.facebook.com/fidentiaX
Twitter: www.twitter.com/fidentiaX
Telegram: www.t.me/fidentiaX

 

The post fidentiaX Disruption of the Tradable Insurance Market is coming soon appeared first on NEWSBTC.

CoinDesk

Canadian Police Issue Warning Over Bitcoin Tax Scam CoinDesk Police in Canada have issued a warning over a bitcoin tax scam after more than 40 York region residents fell victim to fraudsters. According to a report by CBC News, York Regional Police said that victims lost as much as 340,000 Canadian dollars ... and more »

Police in York, Canada, have warned of a tax scam after over 40 people were convinced to send money via bitcoin ATMs.

Highly regarded Bitcoin Core developer and cryptocurrency consultant Peter Todd has criticized the cancellation of the SegWit2x hard fork and the “waste” of resources used throughout the development of the software.

Cancellation of SegWit2x

On November 8, the development and deployment of the SegWit2x hard fork were officially terminated, with the release of an official statement from BitGo CEO Mike Belshe to the SegWit2x Mailing List. The statement was co-signed by leading businesses within the bitcoin industry which participated in the original NYA or SegWit2x agreement, which included ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees, Blockchain CEO Peter Smith, Xapo CEO Wences Casares, and SegWit2x lead developer Jeff Garzik.

The statement read:

“Our goal has always been a smooth upgrade for Bitcoin. Although we strongly believe in the need for a larger block size, there is something we believe is even more important: keeping the community together. Unfortunately, it is clear that we have not built sufficient consensus for a clean blocksize upgrade at this time. Continuing on the current path could divide the community and be a setback to Bitcoin’s growth. This was never the goal of Segwit2x.”

As explained by Belshe, the initial objective of the SegWit2x team and its supporting companies was to carry out an upgrade on the Bitcoin protocol, without pursuing a contentious fork that could lead to the creation of a new cryptocurrency, like the Bitcoin Cash hard fork in August. However, over time, as the community continued to reject the SegWit2x software, the lack of consensus amongst businesses, developers, users, and miners within the bitcoin sector made it virtually impossible to carry out a smooth upgrade.

Criticism of Bitcoin Core Developer Peter Todd

Immediately after the cancellation of the SegWit2x hard fork was confirmed by ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees and BitGo engineer Jameson Lopp, Todd criticized the amount of resources and capital that were allocated to develop the SegWit2x software. He said:

“The 2X cancellation email was signed by Mike Belshe, Wences Casares, Jihan Wu, Jeff Garzik, Peter Smith, and Erik Voorhees, in case you were wondering who to send the bill for the millions of dollars worth of engineering time wasted on this mess.”

Whether the resources that were allocated into the development SegWit2x was a waste will be proven in the upcoming months. If SegWit2x has led the community to re-evaluate the necessity of onchain scaling given the high fees of the Bitcoin network at the moment, developers and businesses behind SegWit2x could consider the movement as a success.

In the meantime, businesses will likely move on to adopt and integrate SegWit, to allow users to experience reduced transaction fees SegWit provides. ShapeShift has already integrated SegWit, which was an important step for bitcoin considering that ShapeShift solely accounts for around 3 percent of the Bitcoin network’s transactions.

In the upcoming months, major companies like Bitfinex and Blockchain will likely integrate SegWit. Bitfinex has stated that SegWit integration is in progress.

The post Bitcoin Developer Peter Todd on SegWit2x Cancellation: “Millions of Dollars Wasted” appeared first on NEWSBTC.

Deloitte: 92% of Blockchain-related projects on the code repository GitHub become inactive.

After making a prediction that bitcoin would be $10K by 2018, the American venture capitalist, Tim Draper, is still bullish about cryptocurrencies. In fact, Draper believes digital assets like bitcoin will be so prominent that using fiat currencies in five years will be considered laughable.

Also Read: The World’s Largest FX Exchange Hopes to Tame Bitcoin Volatility 

Tim Draper: “In Five Years Bitcoin Will Be So Relevant — There Will Be No Reason to Use Fiat Currencies”

Back in 2016, news.Bitcoin.com reported on Tim Draper’s 2014 prediction that bitcoin would reach $10K per BTC in 2018, and at the time it didn’t look possible. Now as 2018 approaches with less than two months left, bitcoin’s price is very close to that region touching $7,500 per bitcoin during the first week of November. Draper is well known for being very optimistic about the future of cryptocurrencies by investing in many digital currency startups, and purchasing $20M worth of bitcoin in the 2014 Silk Road government auction. Now Draper tells the tech journalist, John Koetsier, at this year’s Web Summit — Cryptocurrencies will be the future of money.

“In five years, if you try to use fiat currency they will laugh at you,” Draper explains at the 2017 Web Summit.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will be so relevant — there will be no reason to have the fiat currencies.

Draper Rakes In a $200M Profit from the Silk Road Auction

Draper’s 2014 Silk Road (SR) purchase of 30,000 BTC back in 2014 had confirmed the venture capitalist was a big believer, even when bitcoin’s markets were quite bearish that year. At the time, Draper’s SR bitcoins were purchased for a touch under $20M using 2014 spot prices. Draper’s crypto-hoard is worth $223M at today’s prices, giving the investor over $203M in gains in less than three years.      

In the Future Draper Believes Cryptocurrencies Will Interrelate, but the Tech Needs to be Simplified

Draper details at the Web Summit that he envisions digital assets will become superior “transfer agents and stores of value.” Even with a thousand bitcoin clones, Draper believes quite a few of them will work together in the future, but if cryptocurrencies don’t become more simplified, they may not get adopted.

“They are all [Cryptocurrencies] going to interrelate, and there will be exchange rates for all of them,” Draper emphasizes.

My guess is that it will centralize around a wallet that you have, and when you pay for that Starbucks, your wallet will optimize to whichever currency has most value — If it doesn’t get simplified it won’t get adopted — good marketing people will simplify all use of these things.

Draper also believes there may even be coins based on individuals, and some that put “value on our time and attention.” The investor has always had a firm conviction towards his predictions, as Draper even wagered $400K that bitcoin would rebound after 2014’s slump. The venture capitalist’s wild-eyed forecasts seem a touch more believable these days as bitcoin’s market cap is only $45B away from reaching his 2014 outlook.    

What do you think about Tim Draper’s predictions? Do you think he’s right that fiat currencies will be irrelevant and laughable in five years? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

---

Images via Pixabay, Bitcoin.com, Tech Cocktail, and Shutterstock. 

---

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.

The post Tim Draper Predicts Using Fiat Currencies in Five Years Will Be Laughable appeared first on Bitcoin News.

It is early Thursday morning in Europe and we are about to kick off our day of trading in the bitcoin price. Things have been extremely volatile over the last 24 hours against a backdrop of some fundamental inputs (we are looking at you, SegWit2X) which wasn’t unexpected, but the specific impact of the inputs in question was – until it happened – difficult to predict.

As it turns out, we saw a pretty steep decline in price early onThursday and, right now, price is consolidating in and around the lower quadrant of this price decline.

With any luck, as the day matures, we will see a degree of recovery and a back up towards the mid-7000s during the European session.

With this in mind, and as we move into the session today, here is a look at what we are focusing on in the bitcoin price and where we intend to try and jump in and out of the markets according to the rules of our intraday strategy. As ever, take a quick look at the chart below before we get started so as to get an idea where things stand and how price brought us to trade in and around current levels subsequent to overnight action.

The chart is a one-minute candlestick charts and it has our range overlaid in green.

As the chart shows, the range we are looking at for the session today comes in as defined by support to the downside at 7162 and resistance to the upside at 7275.

We will watch out for a close above resistance to validate an upside target of 7310. A stop loss on the trade at 7265 looks good.

Looking the other way, if price closes below support, we will enter short towards a downside target of 7110.

Let’s see how things play out.

Chart courtesy of Trading View

The post Bitcoin Price Watch; Here Are This Morning’s Key Levels appeared first on NEWSBTC.

Not everyone is happy about the end of SegWit2x, threatening to continue with it “regardless.”

Air transport IT firm SITA has released a white paper detailing how airlines and airports could use smart contracts for shared control of data.

I can’t see a future of this: French banking executive on the virtual currencies.

We live in an eSports world. Gaming today is bigger than ever. Mind-bending is the word that would best describe the impact eSports has on our lives today. Growth is evident, as the niche registers a monumental 100% growth rate in viewership, attention media-wise and economically lucrative.

The idea is simple: eSports is a vast reservoir of gaming fans streaming through gaming events. The most recent event is DotA2 International. DotA2 is not the biggest eSports rep but it’s safe to say it holds 3rd place right behind League of Legends and Counter-Strike. Just to give you a scale of the industry, DotA2 had an international prize pool of $25 million, of which 90% was raised through crowdfunding ($23 million).

It’s only natural that we see development ideas being championed to expand the eSports arena. Game developers are taking an interest in the growth in the arena. We can expect to see the world’s largest gaming companies tap into this. However, on the other hand, we have independent gamers who are looking to create an eSports gaming portal of their own liking. A team of gamers is working on developing a consumer based gaming portal that will offer high quality and meaningful experience to their gaming friends and fans.

The ESPORTS.com portal, ICO launched on 1st November 2017 at 1 pm CET enables gaming fans to share, curate, and enjoy cool content together, or even participate in and contribute to events. All users will be able to participate in creating content for education, entertainment, and statistics, by writing guides or producing videos. The reward for their work will be furnished using the platforms digital currency, ESPORTS Reward Token (ERT). By providing the best to their clients, ESPORTS will build an online community that produces engaging and exclusive content aimed at eSporting enthusiasts.

The company’s revenue stream consists of a four-tier offering including online eSports shop, licensed eSports betting, and all-exclusive eSports university. The long-term plan for ESPORTS.com is to create an independent backend that serves as the control center for all their activities and offers. To realize this, ESPORTS.com is working closely with Sports Book Cloud (SBC), a gold standard provider for BetRadar and represents one of the most up-to-date and best solutions on the market. Gaming is quickly becoming a spectator sport. For this reason, once the contribution goal of 20 million Euros has been reached, ESPORTS.com will open a physical eSports center in Berlin where players can be cultivated into pro players.

The post ESPORTS.com: A Substantial Upgrade to eSports Industry appeared first on NEWSBTC.

Key Points

• Bitcoin cash price after a decent upside move struggling to break the $645 level against the US Dollar.
• There is a bearish trend line forming with current resistance at $640 on the hourly chart of BCH/USD (data feed from Kraken).
• The price might continue to trade in the $580-640 range before the next move.

Bitcoin cash price is trading near the $645 resistance against the US Dollar. BCH/USD has to break $645-650 to gain further momentum.

Bitcoin Cash Price Resistance

Recently, we saw decent upsides in Bitcoin cash price above the $600 level against the US Dollar. However, the price seems to be struggling to break the $640 and $650 resistance levels. There is a broad range forming with support at $580 and resistance at $650. The price recently tested the $640-650 range resistance, attempted an upside break on a couple of times, but failed.

It seems like there is a bearish trend line forming with current resistance at $640 on the hourly chart of BCH/USD. The pair recently failed near $643 and started a short-term correction. It tested the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $570 low to $643 high. The downsides seem to be limited by the $600 level and the 50% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $570 low to $643 high. Buyers are likely to protect declines if the pair moves toward $600 and $580.

On the upside, the pair needs to break the range resistance at $640 and $650 to move toward $680. Above $680, the pair could even test the $700 handle in the short term.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for BCH/USD is slowly moving in the bullish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for BCH/USD is currently well above the 50 level with positive signs.

Major Support Level – $600

Major Resistance Level – $640

 

Charts courtesy – Trading View, Kraken

The post Bitcoin Cash Price Technical Analysis – BCH/USD Testing Range Resistance appeared first on NEWSBTC.

In the past 12 months, the demand for bitcoin from the traditional financial industry has significantly increased, pressuring hedge funds and large-scale investment firms to include bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a major part of their portfolios.

In an interview with Nathaniel Poppers of the New York Times, research firm Autonomous Next revealed that more than 130 hedge funds exclusive to bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market have been established, with more to be expected throughout 2018.

Led by Fidelity and billionaire hedge fund legends like Mike Novogratz, some of the largest hedge funds in Wall Street and the global financial industry have started to invest heavily in bitcoin. Analysts expect investments in bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market to only increase in the upcoming months, as financial institutions like CME Group, Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and LedgerX provide sufficient liquidity and efficient cryptocurrency trading platforms for institutional and retail traders.

Hedge Funds Will Lead Bitcoin Price to $10,000

Bobby Cho, the head trader at Cumberland, a leading bitcoin trading business, further emphasized that the vast majority of the firm’s consumer base is now composed of institutional and retail traders, after years of hesitancy.

“The vast majority of the trading we do is with institutions. The education and research have turned into real-life activity.”

Over the past few months, analysts have stated that the launch of bitcoin futures, options, and derivatives exchanges by some of the world’s largest financial institutions will result in tens of billions of “money on the sidelines” being invested in bitcoin in the next several years.

Movement of Funds From Traditional Assets to Bitcoin is Happening

Already, the traditional financial industry and market have begun to acknowledge bitcoin as a safe haven asset and a robust store of value. As the mainstream adoption of bitcoin continues to increase at an exponential rate, in the mid-term, with necessary infrastructure, the bitcoin market will accommodate a rising number of institutional and retail investors.

The migration of billions of dollars worth of funds from conventional wealth management products (WMPs), offshore banking accounts, and safe haven assets to bitcoin will allow the cryptocurrency add hundreds of billions of dollars to its market valuation, allowing the price of bitcoin to climb to $10,000 and potentially to tens of thousands of dollars in the long-term.

Famously, Wall Street strategist the founder of Fundstrat Tom Lee, stated that the bitcoin price will likely surpass the $25,000 in the long-term, in a few years time.

“Bitcoin represents a store of value because it is an encrypted database, that for seven years has not been hacked. That is a way to store value. And if personal information is our gold, Bitcoin is our digital gold. So we think that the gold market which is $9 trillion, and for a generation of investors gold was their store of value. I think the next generation of young people view Bitcoin as their store of value. And if it captures 5 percent of the gold market, it is worth at least $25,000 per unit,” said Lee.

The post Hedge Funds are Heavily Investing in Bitcoin, as Price Continues to Soar appeared first on NEWSBTC.

It’s become fashionable to malign millennials for killing everything from dinner dates to department stores. If the results of a recent survey are anything to go by, there’s another victim that can be added to that lengthy list – fiat currency. According to a newly released survey, over 50% of millennials have a positive view of bitcoin and are twice as likely to own it compared to other age groups.

Also read: Dennis Gartman Calls Bitcoin the ‘Millennial Answer to Gold’

Millennial Enthusiasm for Bitcoin Surpasses All Other Demographics

Over 2,000 US adults were quizzed by Harris Poll in one of the most wide-ranging bitcoin surveys to date. The poll, which was conducted between October 18th and 20th, provides a fascinating insight into how adults of all ages perceive bitcoin. It is among 18-34-year-olds however – millennials – that the greatest divergence from the rest of the population is seen.

Digital Currency for a Digital Generation

Youth might be wasted on the young as the adage goes, but bitcoin doesn’t appear to have passed them by. Not only do twice as many millennials own bitcoin as the rest of the population (4% versus 2%), almost a third claim they’re likely to buy bitcoin in the next five years, versus just 19% of all Americans.

Spencer Bogart, managing director with Blockchain Capital, stated:

“The results of the survey reinforce our conviction in the massive opportunity that lies ahead for Bitcoin.”

Bitcoin still has some way to go before it overtakes other financial assets as a desirable store of wealth however; 30% of millennials surveyed said they’d prefer to own $1k of bitcoin versus $1k of government bonds. That figure falls to 27%, 22% and 19% respectively among millennials when bitcoin is compared with stocks, real estate and gold.

Divided by Decades

Not surprisingly, the survey shows a significant gulf between the youngest adults quizzed and those over 65. 16% of millennials say they’re very likely to buy bitcoin in the next five years – a figure which drops to just 2% among over 45s and to zero among those over 65. Over 65s are also ten times less likely to perceive bitcoin as a positive innovation than millennials and are significantly more inclined to view bitcoin as a bubble.

While bitcoin evangelists are swift to decry the machinations of central banking, the general populace have more faith in financial institutions it would appear. 92% of over 65s believe big banks to be more trustworthy than bitcoin (versus 73% of millennials), though 27% of males under 35 side with bitcoin.

Divided by Genders

The other major takeaway from the Harris Poll survey is the divide between the sexes when it comes to bitcoin enthusiasm. It is no secret that the cryptocurrency space is a male-dominated one, with Google Analytics results suggesting that less than 4% of all participants are female. This fact was reinforced by the survey, which revealed that twice as many men own or have owned bitcoin and are almost three times as likely as women to buy bitcoin in the next five years. Men also have a more positive view of bitcoin (17% versus 7%). When pressed on the likelihood that “most people will be using bitcoin in the next 10 years”, the disparity between the sexes diminishes, with 9% of all respondents strongly agreeing.

Custodians of Digital Currency

It would be hyperbole to suggest that millennial familiarity with bitcoin heralds a hastening demise for traditional currency. Nevertheless, the results of the survey add weight to the notion that using digital currencies comes naturally to a generation that has grown up with touchscreens, many of whom don’t recall the pre-internet age. If bitcoin is the future then millennials are its custodians. On this evidence, the world’s preeminent digital currency is in safe hands.

Do you agree with the results of the survey? Let us know in the comments section below.

---

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, and Coin.Dance.

---

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.

The post Millennials Are Big On Bitcoin (But Over 65s Not So Sure) appeared first on Bitcoin News.