Day: December 6, 2017

The price of bitcoin passed the $12,000 mark for the first time ever last night, and has now gained over $1,000 in less than 24 hours.

Mike Novogratz, who is very bullish on Bitcoin, is getting worried that its monumental price gain is going to start bringing back governmental regulators to try and tame the digital beast.

Renowned trader Mark Fisher has likened Bitcoin’s rush at the moment to the silver boom that occurred in the 70s and 80s.

Bitcoin real estate adoption reaches new highs.

Most cryptocurrency enthusiasts pay close attention to the top 10 currencies by market cap. Right now, we have a few coins separating themselves from the pack in quick succession. However, interesting things are happening to the Stellar Lumens price as well. Thanks to solid gains over the past few days, one XLM is now worth over $0.15. A massive boost for the Stellar Lumen price, as the currency inches closer toward its main competitor Ripple.

Stellar Lumens Price Explodes

Very few people keep tabs on currencies such as XRP and XLM, mainly because they can’t be classified as cryptocurrencies. Instead, these are digital tokens which are purposefully designed to aid the struggling banking sector. It is a worthwhile venture, especially as a lot of people can benefit from an optimized banking system. Faster and cheaper transactions will be beneficial to consumers and corporations, at least until cryptocurrencies start making a bigger impact.

As such, the Stellar Lumens price isn’t something a lot of people will pay attention to. Given the airdrops of this digital token, there will be people who own XLM and not even realize it. Additionally, a lot of people sold their tokens in the past without giving XLM  a second thought. There are entities who do see merit in this currency, though, as its value has almost quadrupled in the past month. A remarkable growth for a digital asset few people in the cryptocurrency world actively care about right now.

More specifically, the Stellar Lumens price has increased from $0.028 in early November all the way to $0.154. While this value pales in comparison to Bitcoin or most altcoins, one also has to keep in mind there are close to 18 billion XLM in circulation. As the supply is bought up slowly, the Stellar Lumens price increases accordingly. Especially the past few days have been interesting, as the value almost doubled. It is unclear where this sudden demand is coming from, or whether this is a pump-and-dump cycle.

With over $345m in 24-hour trading volume, it is evident this demand for XLM isn’t coming from just one source. It is commendable to see this digital asset rise in value, as a competitor to Ripple can only be considered to be a good thing in that specific industry. With a market cap of nearly $2.8bn, things are looking pretty good for Stellar. Whether or not this momentum and trading volume is even remotely sustainable, remains to be seen, though.

For the time being, it seems most of the demand for Stellar Lumens originates from the Bittrex exchange. Their volume is only marginally higher than Poloniex, though. The Bitcoin markets drive this surge in Stellar Lumens price, as there are only two actual fiat currency markets in the top 10 and one USDT pair. It seems money is flowing from Bitcoin into various altcoins and digital assets right now, rather than fresh money moving to XLM. An interesting aspect to keep an eye on, to say the very least.

The big question on everybody’s mind is how these things will evolve in the future. A temporary Stellar Lumens price increase isn’t something to get overly excited about unless you are a speculator. At the same time, we saw Ripple’s XRP soar in value out of the blue a while ago as well. If this trend keeps up, both assets may be a lot closer in value to one another than originally assumed. A lot of exciting things happen in the world of cryptocurrency and digital assets.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has revealed a plan to issue a bond over a blockchain system in collaboration with a major world issuer.

Only a couple weeks removed from its launch, Etherecash is already calling its token sale a smashing success, as more than 40,000 people have contributed to the sale, an impressive feat considering there’s still a little over 3 weeks left before it ends.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

This is more than enough time to significantly add to an already successful token sale campaign, that has followed an important appearance at the World Blockchain Summit as well as a lively Pre-ICO.

The team is hoping that they’re one step closer to their vision of revolutionizing the financial industry with the funds they have raised during their ICO — a vision that includes serving the 2 billion people around the world that consider themselves either unbanked or underbanked

The Idea behind the platform is the creation of a decentralized medium that facilitates peer-to-peer loans backed solely by a user’s crypto wealth. This concept is intended to replace some roles of a traditional bank, alleviating barriers-to-entry in the process.

Thus, people currently unable to access financing or financial services like lending will be given the chance without the tedious step of setting up a bank account. Furthermore, P2P loans are backed by the borrower’s own crypto-wealth, allowing them to borrow up to 80% of their wallet’s value.

Additionally, global money transfers via the blockchain will also be a benefit of the platform, with blockchain technology providing financial strengths that traditional banks lack with its instant, anonymous, secure and cheap money transfers.

On top of this, once Etherecash’s proposed crypto debit card is available, users will also be able to store multiple types of cryptocurrency on it. This should improve their crypto’s fungibility, as it could be used wherever traditional cards are accepted.

The Etherecash Team

Etherecash envision themselves as a “bunch of strange individuals”  that all seemingly have a mutual hatred for traditional bank fees. The team includes veteran stock trader Jacky Thanh Ly as CEO, former MMRM CEO Miguel Aguirre as COO,  IT Engineer, Silvan Gebhardt and mentors who advise from positions and fields of strategic investment, financial advisors, cryptocurrency Attorneys, and  fintech Entrepreneurs.

“We’re going forward with bringing the future of banking to the masses and think the world should know just how proud we are”

The team is inviting investors and crypto enthusiasts alike to come along for the journey and take part in the ICO as it enters its third week.

About the ICO:

Based on the Ethereum standard token ERC20, purchasable with Bitcoin or Ethereum, the exciting ICO Launch began 15th November, 2017 – Ending December 19th, 2017.

With a supply of 360,000,000 Tokens and an ICO supply of 144,000,000, early adopters can take advantage of an incentivising ICO bonus structure:

Main ICO Bonus:

15th November – 15%

Week One – 12%

Week Two – 10%

Week Three – 5%

Week Four – 3%

Week Five – 0%

Visit the Etherecash Official website – http://etherecash.io

Commentators are increasingly at a loss to explain how and when Bitcoin will reach its next maximum.

The out-of-reach funds locked away in Parity could be accessible again in six months, say co-founders.

The Blockchain regtech company announces a December 12th start date for public sale of the anti-money laundering compliance token following successful pre-sale

LONDON, December 6, 2017 – Coinfirm, a global leader in blockchain AML/CTF and compliance solutions, has announced today that it exceeded its goal for the pre-sale of its AMLT token ahead of its public sale scheduled for December 12th. AMLT is the native token of the Coinfirm platform, designed to enhance transparency and democratization within the financial system by allowing market participants to help determine the potential risk of others.

Broadening Access to new markets

Coinfirm is an anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing platform (AML/CTF) that helps improve compliance efficiency and broadens financial inclusion. The company has been raising  standards  of compliance in the blockchain and financial ecosystem through its technical solution that allows financial institutions to interface with the cryptocurrency economy.  It does this by actively involving market participants globally in determining the risk of others in the network, allowing entities to rate and provide information on other market participants into the Coinfirm AML/CTF Platform, with AMLT as their reward for the valid data they provide. For example, through AMLT, entities in “high risk” regions can also be evaluated based on the existing relationship and input of other market participants and have their risk lowered due to the positive feedback. Network members such as exchanges or payment processors can provide ratings and data on other market participants and cryptocurrency addresses to enrich data, potentially warn others about ransomware funds and be rewarded in AMLT tokens.

“AMLT is the next step in our vision for our AML/CTF Platform and is one that provides redefines compliance by giving a voice to the market itself. Our plan is not only for contributors of the AMLT crowdsale to be able to use their tokens with certain benefits on the Coinfirm AML/CTF Platform but we expect to bring higher compliance efficiency and allow for greater financial inclusion globally,” Coinfirm Co-Founder and CEO Pawel Kuskowski.

An Established Network

Coinfirm already works with world-class partners and clients ranging from major virtual currency players such as Dash and RSK(RootStock), to leading financial institutions such as SEI. As a key link in bringing virtual currencies and blockchain to a broader market base, the blockchain agnostic Coinfirm AML/CTF Platform supports a number of cryptocurrencies such as BITCOIN, DASH, ETHEREUM and ERC20/ERC223 tokens used in ICO’s. This will further help with compliance and vital regulations like anti money-laundering and countering terrorist financing across the blockchain ecosystem. This supports a major need of the token issuers as well as the banks that want to provide bank account facilities to them.

Widening Financial Inclusion in Cryptocurrency

One of the more important problems that AMLT looks to solve with the democratization model is financial inclusion. Because the current compliance system and related tools and processes are so ineffective, millions of individuals and entities are excluded from the financial system as a whole. Coinfirm’s platform helps solve this by not only taking compliance effectiveness and accuracy to levels unavailable in the traditional system, but also by providing a model with AMLT that allows market participants to value and rate others and bring a level of democracy to compliance. So with AMLT, an entity existing in a high risk area can lower their risk rating through peer evaluation. Many excluded entities will now have the possibility to interact with the commercial financial ecosystem on a transparent and global level.

“By democratising compliance, we’re redefining compliance and the financial system as a whole, this opens up the system to entities in regions and situations that previously couldn’t access it.” Kuskowski said.

To be implemented into an already vibrant and active network of players through the Coinfirm AML/CTF Platform, AMLT will have a strong foundation with commercial adoption and use. AMLT has the goal of building an open financial system and bringing cryptocurrencies into the mainstream in a safe, efficient and effective way.

Supporters can acquire AMLT tokens in the Coinfirm crowdsale from December 12th in exchange for  Ethereum (ETH). AMLT is a utility token that allows the holder access rights to the Coinfirm AML/CTF Platform as well as a range of prepaid products. The sale has a hard cap of $16 million USD with bonuses for early participation. For more information visit https://amlt.coinfirm.io

About Coinfirm

Coinfirm serves as a foundation for the safe adoption and use of blockchain. The Coinfirm AML/CTF Platform uses proprietary algorithms and big data analysis to provide structured, actionable data that increases efficiency, reduces costs and streamlines compliance to near automation. A recognized leader in their field and among the most influential blockchain and regtech companies, the blockchain agnostic platform benefits not only companies operating around blockchain but also major financial institutions, asset management and BI companies. In addition, Coinfirm develops dedicated blockchain solutions such as their data provenance platform Trudatum, currently being piloted for adoption by multiple financial institutions. Trudatum is an easy to use blockchain solution to register and verify the ownership and authenticity of any type of document, file, or data. www.coinfirm.io

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.

Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF Analyst for Bloomberg, reveals the the true size of Sweden’s Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

Lawyers take a look at the challenges involved in using ethereum’s open-source code, and what they claim are its potential pitfalls.